c- r 




Y 



THE 



CHILDHOOD OF RELIGIONS: 



i n; i m.n* mm wmii*G*r* 



EMBEACLNG 



A SIMPLE ACCOUNT 

OF THE 

BIRTH AND GROWTH OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS. 

BT 

EDWARD CLODD , F.R.A.S., 

'■ "ML'TilOB OF 

"the childhood of the wobld." 



« We were ail brothers, because we had one work, and one hope, 
and one Ail-Father." — Alton Zocke, p. 273. 



FEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

549 & 551 BROADWAY. 

1875. 









^u« s 



C I* 



B y transfer 

0<1[ 20 t9U 



PREFACE. 



In a little book entitled ' The Childhood of the 
World/ which was received by the public with 
unlooked-for favour, an attempt was made to con- 
vey to young persons the knowledge concerning 
man s early condition which has been gathered 
during recent years, and it is to the Second Part 
of that work, which treate,-.?of his advance from 
lower to higher stages of religious belief, that the 
present volume, which deals mainly with the ex- 
pression and embodiment of that belief in certain 
great religions of the East, is intended to be 
supplemental. 

The question which forces itself upon all who 
are interested in the education of the young, is 
what they shall be taught regarding the relation 
of the Bible to other sacred scriptures, and to the 
declarations of modern science where they fail to 
harmonise with its statements ; and it is as a 



PREFACE. 



humble contribution to the solution of that ques- 
tion, that the present and preceding volumes have 
been written. 

In an age which has been truly characterised by 
a leading thinker as one of i weak convictions/ it 
seems to me incumbent on those who, in accept- 
ing the conclusions to which the discoveries of our 
time point, regard the inevitable displacement of 
many beliefs without fear, because assured that 
the great verities remain, to be faithful to their 
convictions, and to show that the process of de- 
struction is removing only the scaffolding which, 
once useful, now obscures the temple from our 
view. 

In the absence of any like elementary treatise 
upon subjects regarding which much ignorance 
and apathy prevail, and the treatment of which 
is at present confined to works for the most part 
high-priced, and not always accessible, I hope 
that this book may not be regarded as needless, 
however far it falls short of the requirement which 
appears to me to exist, and which it ventures to 
temporarily supply. 

The mass of material at one's disposal renders 



PREFACE. 



its clear presentment within a moderate compass 
somewhat difficult, but I have been at pains to 
select the essential portions, and, in view of those 
to whom the body of the work is addressed, to 
choose the simplest language which the several 
subjects permit. If the style is thus more fami- 
liar than dignified, I hope it may with greater 
success attract the ear of the youthful reader. 

The Notes which are placed at the end of the 
book may be found useful to parents and teachers, 
as well as to those who may hereafter desire to 
pursue the matters to which it is designed to serve 
as a simple introduction, while the references 
affixed will indicate some of the authorities to 
whom I am under obligation. The number of 
these prevents specific acknowledgment, but I 
cannnot omit expressing much indebtedness to 
Profs. Max Muller, Whitney, and DeGubernatis, and 
to Drs Muir, Tylor, Legge and the lamented 
Dr Deutsch, for the aid afforded by their works 
in the preparation of this book. The contribu- 
tions of Professor Max Muller and Dr Muir 
to the subject of Comparative Theology are 
of the highest value to the student, while in all 



PREFACE. 



that relates to the development of mythology 
and religion among mankind the study of Dr 
Tylor's unsurpassed volumes on ' Primitive Cul- 
ture ' is indispensable. 

E. C. 



133, Brecknock Eoad, London, 
March 1875. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGE 

I. INTRODUCTORY .... 1 

II. LEGENDS OF THE PAST ABOUT THE CREATION 10 

III. CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE . . 29 

IV. LEGENDS OF THE PAST ABOUT MANKIND . 43 
V. EARLY RACES OF MANKIND . # 53 

VI. THE ARYAN OR INDO-EUROPEAN NATIONS . 67 



70 
75 



A. THE ARYANS IN THEIR UNDIVIDED STATE . 

B. THEIR CIVILIZATION 

C. SOURCE OF OUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THEM i 8 

D. THEIR RELIGION . . . . 86 
K THEIR MYTHS .... 96 
F. THE SEPARATION OF THE ARYAN TRIBES . 128 

VII. THE ANCIENT AND MODERN HINDU RELI- 
GIONS . . . . .136 
VIII. THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF PERSIA . . 158 
IX. BUDDHISM . . . .170 
X. THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA . . . 189 



CONTENTS. 



XI. THE SEMITIC NATIONS 
XII. MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM 
XIII. ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
CONCLUSION 



PAGE 

200 
204 
230 
241 



APPENDIX. 

Note a. On the likeness between certain Chaldean and 

Jewish legends .... 255 
b. On the origin of the Solar System . . 258 
C. On the punishment of animals and lifeless ob- 
jects as the cause of injury to Mankind . 259 
d. On the supposed birthplace of Mankind . 260 
E. On the common origin of Fairy Tales . 262 
E. The sacred books of Hinduism . . 264 
G. On the words Brahma or Brahm and Brahma 270 
H. The sacred books of the Par si religion . 271 
I. Legends relating to the birth of Buddha . 273 
k. The sacred books of Buddhism . . 275 
l. The sacred books } or Classics, of the Chinese 277 



INDEX . 



281 



THE 

CHILDHOOD OF RELIGIONS. 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

A POET who has put many wise and tender 
thoughts into verses full of music, once wrote some 
lines on the birthday of a great and good man, 
whose life's delight was in listening to all that 
Nature has to tell, and who not long since passed 
away from earth to learn new lessons in some 
other part of the wide universe of God. 

The poem tells us that as the boy lay in his 
cradle, 

4 Nature, the old nurse, took 
The child upon her knee, 
Saying : "Here is a story-book 
Thy Father has written for thee." 

* u Come wander with me," she said, 

" Into regions yet untrod ; 
And read what is still unread 
In the manuscripts of God." 



2 INTR OD UC TOR V. [chap i. 

* And he wandered away and away 
With Nature, the dear old nurse, 
Who sang to him night and day 
The rhymes of the universe. 

' And whenever the way seemed long, 
Or his heart began to fail, 
She would sing a more wonderful song, 
Or tell a more marvellous tale/ 

It is some fragment of the wonderful story 
s without an end ' to which Agassiz (for it is he of 
whom Longfellow speaks in the poem) listened so 
gladly, a story as true as it is wonderful and as 
beautiful as it is true, that I want to tell you, if 
you too wish to open your young eyes to the 
sights that ever grow more charmful, and your 
ears to the sounds that give forth no unsweet 
notes ; otherwise the story is not for you. 

To learn well the lessons which Nature is ever 
willing to teach, we must begin while we are 
young, for then the memory is 'wax to receive 
and marble to retain.' The mind, like a knife, 
quickly rusts if it be not used. Unless the eye is 
trained to see, it becomes dim ; unless the ear is 
trained to hear, it gets dulled ; and this is why so 
many, careless to sharpen their wits on the whet- 



chap, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 3 

stone of outlook and thought, enter into life and pass 
away from it, never knowing in what a world of 
beauty, of bounty and of wonder they have lived. 

So I would have you treasure the joy which 
earth and heaven yield as riches that no moth or 
rust can corrupt or thief break through and steal ; 
that make the poorest boy who smiles his thanks 
for the bit of blue sky that roofs the murky court 
in which he lives, happier, and therefore wealthier, 
than the richest lord whose sunlit acres of wood- 
land and meadow call from him nothing but a 
yawn. 

I think you will be interested in listening to 
a few curious stories in which men of old have 
striven to account for the universe, how it all 
began to be and what keeps it going. Some of 
these stories have only come to light during the 
last few years, and this through the patient 
labours of learned scholars, who have found them 
buried in the sacred writings of certain religions of 
the East. We will then see what our men of 
science have learned from the story-book of 
Nature about the earth's history in the ages long, 
long ago, when as yet no man lived upon it ; 



4 INTRODUCTORY. [chap. i. 

when no children, with eyes laughter-filled, made 
nosegays of its flowers, and ran after the jewels 
which they were told lay sparkling where the 
rainbow touched the ground ; but when God, 
ever-working, never-resting, since work and rest 
with Him are one, was fitting it to be the abode 
of life. 

Following the same sure guides into that dim 
old past, we will learn a little of the mighty 
changes which, wrought by fire and water, have 
given to the earth's face its rugged, ragged out- 
line, and also a little about the strange creatures 
that lived and struggled and died ages before 
God's highest creature, man, was placed here. 
Then after telling how the earliest races of men 
slowly covered large parts of the earth, the way 
will be clear for an account of the great parent- 
nation whose many children have spread them- 
selves over nearly the whole of Europe, over large 
portions of Asia, and, since its discovery by Col- 
umbus, of America. We will learn something 
about the life these forefathers lived while to- 
gether in one home, the language they spake, the 
thoughts that filled their breasts, and how those 



chap. I.] INTRODUCTORY. 



thoughts live on among *us and other peoples in 
many shapes, both weird and winsome. 

For I expect it will be news ' to some of you 
that the dear old tales which come now-a-days 
bound in green and gold and full of fine pictures, 
such as Cinderella, Snow- White and Rosy-Red, 
Beauty and the Beast, are older than any school- 
histories, and were told, of course in somewhat 
different form, by fathers and mothers to their 
children thousands of years ago in Asia, when 
Europe was covered with thick forests, amidst 
which huge wild beasts wandered. 

I must stay here a moment to say that only a 
very little of what is now known concerning the 
matters already spoken of has been gathered from 
books. Men of science, wistful to learn more of 
that long before out of which we have come, have 
deemed none of its relics too trifling for their 
study. They have searched on the slopes of 
valleys through which rivers once flowed for the 
stone tools and weapons wherewith the first men 
worked and fought, and explored the caverns 
which from early times gave shelter to man and 
beast ; they have opened great earth-mounds and 



6 INTRODUCTORY. [chap. i. 

tombs for remains of the dead laid within them ; 
they have spelled out the picture-words painted on 
the walls of temples choked with the drifted sand 
of centuries, the wedge-shaped letters cut on rocks 
and stamped on sun-dried bricks, also the writing 
on crumbling papyri, dried palm-leaves, barks of 
trees and other substances ; they have traced 
words in common use to the roots from which 
they sprang, and fairy tales and legends to the 
home of fancy where many of them were born ; 
and thus has come to us, in ways undreamed of by 
our forefathers, rich treasures of knowledge. 

Lastly, though by no means the least, we will 
open some of the sacred books of India, Persia, 
China, Arabia and other lands, to see for ourselves 
what the wisest and best of the ancients have 
thought about this wondrous life and what is to 
come after it. For thought rules the world. It 
makes no noise, but lives on and reigns when all 
the bustling and the shouting that seemed to stifle 
it are hushed, and whilst the great works which 
it guided the hand of man to do have perished, 
or remain to tell of pomp and glory gone for ever, 
it is with us in the words of wisdom that ' shall 



chap, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 



not pass away/ and to which we do well to give 
heed. 

I have said how much life gains in joyfulness 
if our ears be kept open to the sweet voices of 
nature, and our eyes awake to its lovesome sights, 
and I would add how much it gains in trustful- 
ness by even a slight knowledge of the religions 
which are at this day the hope and stay of hun- 
dreds of millions of our fellow -creatures. We 
learn therefrom how very near to his children the 
All-Father, to use the forceful name by which the 
old Norsemen called Him, has always been ; near 
now, near in the days that are gone ; and that 
there never was a time when He dwelt apart 
from men, caring not whether they were vile or 
holy, but that all age and place and human life is 
sacred with His presence. We shall learn, too, — 

' That in all ages 
Every human heart is human ; 
That in even savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings, 
For the good they comprehend not ; 
That the feeble hands and helpless, 
Groping blindly in the darkness, 
Trust God's right hand in that darkness, 
And are lifted up and strengthened,' 



8 INTRODUCTORY. ^ [chap. i. 

so that when we read how poor wild souls, crav- 
ing after the Power which they feel about them, 
are not able to rise above the worship of bunches 
of feathers or piles of stones, we shall know that 
it is the living God for whom they are feeling, 
and be sure that He will at last lead to Himself 
these children ' crying for a light/ 

It gave men larger and grander views of God 
when they learnt that the earth is one among 
many bodies circling round the sun, and that the 
sun himself is one of numberless suns that are 
strewn as star-dust in the heavens, and it will 
give each of us, whose nature is made to trust, a 
larger trust in, and more loving thought of, Him 
to learn that our religion * is one among many 
religions, and that nowhere is there an altogether 
godless race. 

To use a homely figure, we shall see that the 
religions of the world are like human faces, all of 
which have something in common ; nose, eyes, 
mouth, and so on ; while all differ, some being 
more beautiful than others. And we shall also 
see that wherever any religion exists which has 
struck its roots deep down into the life of a 



chap. I.] INTRODUCTORY, 



people, there must be some truth in it which 
has nurtured them, and which is worth the 
seeking". For the hunger of the soul of man 
can no more be satisfied with a lie, than the 
hunger of his body can be appeased with stones. 
I am most wishful to impress this upon you, 
because you will never read the meaning of this 
world aright if you are content with that half- 
knowledge of the beliefs of other races, both 
savage and civilized, which most people have, and 
which suffices to give only false ideas of those beliefs. 
Remember that where ignorance is, there is 
darkness ; but that where knowledge dwells, 
light abides ; and as knowledge of God, which 
comes from the study of man and his dwelling- 
place, the world, ' grows from more to more/ 
sunnier views of Him make glad the heart, 
chasing away the false ideas about Him that 
frightened poor timid, tender souls ; that made 
even strong men shake, and bring their noble 
powers, tied and bound, before the grim Being 
they were taught to fear; that caused beauty to 
disfigure itself, as if ugliness was acceptable to Him, 
who 'hath made everything beautiful in its time.' 



CHAPTER II. 

LEGENDS OF THE PAST ABOUT THE CREATION. 

In every land and age man has looked up to the 
great, silent heaven, with its unresting sun, moon 
and stars ; and upon this earth, with its robe ot 
many folds and colours, and asked, ' Did these 
things make themselves ? Had they a Maker ? 
If so, how did He make them, and how long ago ? 
What can He be like ? ' And the questions have 
had all kinds of answers framed to meet them, 
and not a few strange stories woven to explain the 
hard matter. 

It is well known to you that among many 
beliefs, now found to be wrong, which were held 
in bygone days, people thought that the earth 
was a flat and fixed thing, for whose sole benefit 
the sun shone by day and the moon and stars by 
night. Now, such a belief as this is no matter 
for wonderment, because it was the only belief 
then possible. People must speak of things as 



chap, ii.] LEGENDS OF THE PAST. n 

they appear, and we still talk of the sun rising and 
setting, although we are sure he does nothing of the 
kind. If you had not learnt anything from books 
and other helps about the roundness of the earth 
and its movements in space, and had been shut 
up all your life in some wide plain where no hills 
broke the long, low line around, and gave you a 
sight, let us say, of the sea hiding in the distance 
the hulls of ships, you would have believed the 
earth to be flat and fixed, and lighted by the sun 
travelling daily across the sky, because your 
senses led you to such belief. Neither could you 
have learnt anything of the vastness and' distance 
of the sun and stars, and you might have made 
the most simple guesses about these matters, as 
did some of the wise Greeks. One of them said 
that the moon was as large as that part of Greece 
once known as the Peloponnesus, but now called 
the JVIorea, and was laughed at for his boldness ; 
while another held that the pale belt of light 
which is named, from a pretty myth, the Milky 
Way, and which we know consists of millions of 
stars, of which our sun is one, was the place 
where the two halves of the sky are joined 



12 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. n. 

together. And it was a very long time before 
people would believe that there were millions of 
mankind who were walking with their feet oppo- 
site to ours on another part of the earth. 

But as the mind of man searched deeper into 
things many of them were found to be other than 
they seemed, and thus all truer knowledge as to 
what they are has been gained by slow and sure 
correction of that which the senses first told about 
them. It would fill a bigger book than this to 
tell through what paths of darkness and danger 
the master-spirits of old cut their way to light, 
amidst what silence and fear they worked, and 
with what trembling they told their discoveries to 
a trusted few, but the story is one you will do well 
to study. And now let us look at a few of the 
old legends about the beginning of things. They 
are for the most part but little known, and 
although the forms in which some of them are 
cast are crude and foolish, they are worth more 
than a smile. They were very real to those 
who framed them, and the wise will gladly find in 
them this truth : that in the presence of the great 
fact of earth, sea and sky, man has seen a greater 



chap. XL] ABOUT THE CREATION. 13 

fact than they, even a Cause without whom they 
had never been, a Cause to whom he has given 
many a different name and paid worship in many 
a strange fashion. 

The spirit in which these early guesses at 
truth should be read is well enforced in this story, 
which comes from an ancient book added to one 
of the Vedas or sacred books of the Hindus. 

A father tells his vain-minded son, in whom no 
sense of wonder dwells, to bring him a fruit of the 
huge banyan-tree or Indian fig-tree. ' Break it/ 
said the father; 'what do you see?' 'Some 
very small seeds/ replied the son. 'Break one 
of them ; what do you see in it V asked the 
father. ' Nothing, my father/ answered the son. 
1 My child/ said the father, ' where you see no- 
thing there dwells a mighty banyan-tree/ 

By way of comparing them with the stories 
which follow, it may be well to set down in simple 
outline the two accounts of the Creation which are 
given in the Book of Genesis. 

In the first account, which is contained in 
chap. i. 1 , to chap. ii. 3, we are told : ' In the 



H LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap.ii. 

beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth/ 

On the first day light was created and divided 
from the darkness, thus causing day and night. 

On the second day an expanse was formed 
above the earth, dividing the waters upon the 
earth from those which were to be stored as rain. 
(As Genesis vii. 11 shows, this expanse or dome 
was believed to be full of windows, which were 
opened whenever it was needful to let the rain 
through. The notion that the sky is a great roof 
covering in a flat world is an idea easily framed by 
the unlearned ; the Polynesians, for example, call 
foreigners ( heaven-bursters/ as having broken in 
from another world outside.) 

On the third day the remainder of the waters 
were gathered together as seas, and the land was 
made to bring forth grass and herb and tree. 

On the fourth day God made two great lights, 
the sun and moon : ' He made the stars also/ 

On the fifth day He peopled the waters with 
fishes and the dome above with birds. 

On the sixth day the work of creation was 
ended by the earth bringing forth four-footed 



chap.il] ABOUT THE CREATION. 15 

beasts and creeping things ; man and woman, as 
the last and chiefest, being made ' in the image 
of God/ Who looked upon all that He had made, 
saw that it was good, and on the seventh day 
rested from His work. 

The second account, which is given in Genesis ii. 
4 to the end, speaks of the earth as without water 
and plants and trees, because there was no rain 
and not a man to till the ground. 

Then the earth was watered by a mist, and man 
was made of the dust of the ground by the Lord 
God, "Who breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life so that he ' became a living soul/ 

Man was then placed in the garden of Eden 
with leave to eat of the fruit of every tree except 
the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Then 
beasts and birds were made and brought to Adam 
that he might give them names. Last of all, the 
Lord God made a woman from a rib taken from 
Adam's side while he slept. 

At this point you may ask, How are we to read 
these and other Bible stories ? What they tell us 
about the creation, the early state of man, the 



16 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap.ii. 

universe in which we live, the age of the earth, 
and other kindred matters, differs so very much 
from what lesson-books on these subjects teach, 
that we feel puzzled which to believe. 

The answer which I will try to give to this 
question before we pass on to the other legends 
may save you the irksome work of unlearning 
much in after years which is often taught upon 
these matters. 

Since that which has to be said about one Bible 
legend applies to all the rest, we will deal with 
those already given about the Creation. 

In bygone years people believed every word of 
those legends to be true, and there is a large 
number who still believe this, strangely overlooking 
the fact that the account given in the first chapter 
of Genesis of the mode and order in which things 
were made differs from the account given in the 
second chapter, and therefore that one of them 
must be wrong. After a time the Bible story 
seemed to be contradicted by the witness of those 
remains of the past which are found deep down in 
the earth, and although many books have been 
written with the view of showing that there is no 



chap. II.] ABOUT THE CREATION. 17 

real contradiction, each has failed to prove this. 
For this reason others have cast aside the narra- 
tives in Genesis as idle and meaningless tales 
which common sense and science alike bid us 
reject. From this you will see that three different 
views are held, upon each of which somewhat must 
be briefly said. 

1. There are those who believe that God made 
all things in six days, that He fixed the sun and 
moon in the sky on the fourth day after the shed- 
ding forth of light and between the creation of 
plants and animals, because they find it thus 
written in the Bible. 

Now it is not wise to accept anything as true 
only on the ground that we find it in a book, 
because if it turns out that the writer of the book 
was mistaken, that his knowledge is imperfect and 
his statements opposed to facts, the foundation 
upon which our belief rests is taken away and the 
belief goes with it. In reading books on history, 
science and any other subject, we believe that 
the writers have set down to the best of their 
knowledge all that can be said upon the matter, 



iS LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. ii. 

and we are glad to learn what they have to tell us, 
and, since very few have either time or talent to 
search for themselves, to rely thereon. But w r e are 
none the less ready, as are the writers themselves, 
to give up all if it is proved to be wrong, and to 
welcome the newer knowledge which the ages 
bring. 

That we must apply this to the reading of the 
Bible I have sought to show at page 230. The 
unknown authors of Genesis, who it is thought 
compiled that book from older writings, and to 
whom the legends of other nations were known, 
as the likeness between the Jewish, Babylonian 
and Persian testifies, speak of the earth as made 
before the sun, and as arched over by a solid 
firmament. It was to them a flat thing that 
moved not, and since no voice has ever come 
from the unseen to instruct man in things which 
God has given him powers to find out, these writers 
were not wiser than the wisest of the age in which 
they lived. But the round earth was none the 
less moving in its course at the rate of nineteen 
miles in every second of time, else spring and 
summer, autumn and winter, had not then been. 



chap. II.] ABOUT THE CREATION. 19 

If among the different sacred books of the world, 
for which, as will be seen hereafter, the same claims 
to be inspired every word are made by those who 
believe in them, there was one book quite free 
from mistakes and into which no blunder could by 
any means enter, we would gladly learn of it, since 
the truth-seeking can have but one desire, namely, 
to know what is true. But none such has ever 
existed, and never will exist, because every book 
is the work of man and therefore liable to error. 
That only is perfect which the finger of the 
Almighty has written on the rock-ribbed earth. 

2. Those who hold that there is no real difference 
between the statements of the Bible and the facts 
of science, argue that when God is said to have 
made the heaven and earth in six days, it is not 
days of twenty-four hours each that are meant, 
but c ages ' or ' periods ' of unknown yet vast 
duration. 

We must all admit that it is very dangerous to 
force any meaning into words which, by unsettling 
what the user of them intended to convey, destroys 
their plain intent. They are far too sacred to 



20 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. ii. 

have tricks played with them, and to give words 
more than one meaning is to make them mean 
whatever the fancy invents, 

4 For what the lips have lightly said, 
The heart will lightly hold. 7 

There can be no doubt that days are meant as 
such in Genesis, since to each day a < morning ' 
and an 'evening' is given (see chap, i., ver. 5, 8, 
13, 19, 23, 31), and this, together with the fact 
that the appointment of the seventh day of the 
week as the Jewish Sabbath was based upon the 
hallowing of that day by God, proves that 
' periods ' and suchlike words which convey no 
idea of fixed lengths of time were not in the 
writers mind. 

The use of the number seven reminds us that 
certain numbers were accounted sacred by ancient 
nations, and that the old mystery about them still 
survives in foolish and unreasoning fears, and in 
proverbs as to the luck or ill-luck that attends 
them. The early worship of the sun, moon and 
five planets may explain the choice of seven as a 
sacred number among some eastern and western 
peoples, and so also may the apparent changes in 



chap, ii.] ABOUT THE CREATION. 21 

the shape of the moon, known as her^p/iases, which 
every seven days bring with them, and which account 
for the very early division of time into weeks. 

This sacredness seems to have linked itself to 
the tradition of a creation in seven days and to 
the frequent use of that number in the Bible; 
these in their turn linking it to many legends of 
the Middle Ages, while the stories of seven sleepers, 
seven wise men, seven wonders of the world, and 
so on, also show what importance was given to it 
in olden times. 

S. It is not wise or well to cast aside the Bible 
story. We can afford to be just to the past, and 
our debt to it is greater than we can pay, since 
its guesses made possible the sure knowledge of 
our time. However childish the ancient explana- 
tions of things may seem to us, they were the best 
that could be had. They were the work of honest 
men who, were they living now, would gladly correct 
their narratives by the great discoveries of these 
latter days. And those narratives contain for all 
time this truth, that every effect has a cause, and 
that this ' mighty sum of things for ever speak- 



22 LEGENDS OE THE PAST [chap. ii. 

ing' witnesses to a Power able to produce and 
shape all to its own ends ; a Power to which men 
give the name of God. 

Therefore despise not the old because it is old, 
neither reject the new because it is new, but value 
each record of the past for the measure of truth 
which may be therein, since if it have none of 
that, it will perish, no matter how many millions 
believe it, nor with what shouts they strive to 
stifle the voices of those who believe it not. 

Now we will pass on to other legends, begin- 
ning with the Babylonian,* the wild and ugly 
features of which are in strong contrast to the 
simpleness and quiet dignity of the story in 
Genesis. This legend, which is no doubt cor- 
rectly given, comes to us through a Babylonian 
priest named Berosus, who lived in the time of 
Alexander the Great. The legend of the crea- 
tion in the old Phoenician religion closely re- 
sembles it. 

There was a time in which all was darkness 
and water. From these came hideous creatures ; 
winged men, men with the legs and horns of goats; 
* See Note A. 



chap.il] ABOUT THE CREATION. 23 

bulls with human heads, and suchlike monsters. 
Over all these was a woman, goddess of nature 
and mother of all beings, whom Belus, the chief of 
the gods, cut in two, making of one half the earth, 
and of the other half the sky. This caused the 
monsters to die, as they could not bear the light, 
upon seeing which Belus cut off his own head, and 
the gods then mixed the blood that flowed there- 
from with the dust of the earth and formed man, 
which accounts for his sharing in the divine nature. 
Belus afterwards made the sun, moon, stars and 
five planets. 

In the ancient religion of the Egyptians there 
is a legend that the sun wounded himself and that 
from the stream of his blood he created all beings. 

Persian legend : from the sacred book of the 
Parsis, known as the Zend-Avesta. The Eternal 
Being produced two great gods, one named 
Ormuzd, King of Light, who remained true 
to him ; the other named Ahriman, King of 
Darkness, who became the author of evil. 

To destroy the evil, Ormuzd was appointed to 
create the world, which was made to last 12,000 



24 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. n. 

years. He formed the firm vault of heaven and 
the earth on which it rests, and dwelt at the top 
of a mountain so high that it pierced the upper 
sky and reached the source of light. He then 
made sun, moon and stars to aid him in his 
battle with the terrible power of darkness ; the 
universe being thus created in six periods ; 
man, as in Genesis, last of all. The beauti- 
ful trust that dwelt in the heart of the pure- 
souled founder of the old Persian faith that 
good would in the end gain the victory over 
evil, will appear hereafter in the account of that 
religion, 

Hindu legend : from an important book of the 
Brahman religion, called the Laws of Manu, the 
first part of which treats of Creation. 

The universe was in darkness when Brahma 
(which means force), himself unseen, dispelled the 
gloom, first producing the waters and causing them 
to move. From a seed which he had placed in 
them there came a golden egg blazing with a 
thousand beams, and in this egg Brahma gave 
birth to himself. There he dwelt and at last 



chap, ii.] ABOUT THE CREATION. 25 

split the egg in halves, one of which became the 
heaven and the other the earth. 

(The Finns believed that heaven and earth 
were made out of a divided egg, the upper half 
being heaven, the yolk being earth, and the white 
fluid the all-surrounding ocean). 

Brahma then drew forth mind and created a 
number of smaller gods and wise men, who in 
their turn created animals and demons, clouds, 
mountains and rivers. 

You have doubtless heard of the Hindu notion 
that the earth rests upon animals standing one 
upon another, four elephants being placed lowest 
of all, because their legs reach all the way down ! 

Scandinavian legend : 

1 Once was the age 
When all was not, 
Nor sound nor sea 
Nor cooling wave. 
Nor earth there was 
Nor sky above, 
Nought save a void 
And yawning gulf, 
But verdure none.' 



26 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. ii. 

To the south of this yawning gulf there was a 
region of flame, and to the north an abode ice- 
cold and dark. Torrents of venom flowed from 
the north into the gulf and filled it with ice, but 
the fire came from the south, and, falling upon 
the ice, melted it. From the melted drops there 
arose the giant Ymir, who, wicked himself, had a 
wicked family of frost-giants. A cow was also 
formed from the melted ice, and she not only fed 
the giants with her milk, but out of the stones 
covered with salt and hoar-frost licked a man of 
strength and beauty, whose son became the father 
of Odin, Vili and Ve. These three slew Ymir, 
and out of his flesh they formed the earth ; from 
his blood the seas and waters, from his bones the 
mountains, from his hair the trees, from his skull 
the heavens, from his brains the floating clouds, 
and from his eyebrows a wall round the earth to 
guard them from the giant sons of Ymir, whose 
anger they feared. 

The old religion of the Scandinavians, who are 
a branch of the great German family, is contained in 
two books known as the f Eddas,' a word thought 
to mean Great- Grandmother or Ancestress. The 



chap. II.] ABOUT THE CREATION. 27 

Elder Edda contains the old mythic poems, and 
the Younger or Prose Edda such pagan legends as 
that just quoted, mixed with later ideas. Odin, 
the Alfadir, is therein thus spoken of: 

' Gangleri began his speech : " Who is first or 
eldest of all gods ? " Har said, " He hight Alfadir 
(is called All-Father) in our tongue, but in the 
old Asgard (or abode of the gods) he had twelve 
names." ' 

. . . ' Odin is named Alfadir because he 
is the father of all the gods, and also Valfadir 
(Choosing Father) because he chooses for his 
sons all who fall in combat, for whose abode he 
has prepared Valhalla ■ (Hall of the Chosen). 

The old Norsemen spoke of death as Heim,gang: 
that is, c home-going/ a thought always beautiful 
and tender, but still more so as coming from these 
wild rovers of the ' homeless sea/ 

Greek legend : from the Theogony, or ' Origin 
of the Gods/ said by some to be one of the works 
of Hesiod, an ancient poet. The Greek priests 
and wise men revered it greatly. 

In the beginning there was huge and formless 



28 LEGENDS OF THE PAST. [chap. ii. 

Chaos, from whom came Gaia, the broad-bosomed 
earth, and Tartarus, dark and dim, below the earth. 
Then appeared beautiful Eros, or Love. From 
Chaos also came night and darkness, from these 
ether and day, whilst the earth gave birth to 
Uranus, the all-surrounding, starry heaven, and 
to the mountains and the sea. Then Gaia and 
Uranus married, and from them sprang demi- 
gods and men. 

^When you know more of the ancient peoples 
who worked out their thoughts about earth, sky 
and living things in such varied shape, and have 
learned amidst what different scenery each lived ; 
how Frost and Fire had fierce unending battle, 
and the Ice-Giant his hearthless home where the 
hardy Norsemen dwelt ; how sunshine and shadow 
made beautiful the well- wooded land of mountains 
and streams in the bright south where the Greeks 
dwelt; you will understand why one legend should 
impress us by its rugged grandeur and another 
enchant us with its stately grace. 



CHAPTER III. 

CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE, 

You have been taught that the earth is one of a 
number of planets (so called from a Greek word 
meaning to wander) which, with other bodies, 
travel round the sun, he being the centre of what 
is called the solar system (from Latin sol, the 
sun). Astronomy primers will tell you that every 
star is a sun, the centre of a solar system, and 
that our sun appears so large and bright because 
he is the star nearest to us. 

It is believed that the particles of matter which 
compose the solar system (and what has now to 
be said applies to the formation of every other 
solar system) were once in a gas-like state, and in 
the vast space over which they were spread, so 
distant from one another as to be at rest. In the 
course of countless ages the immense mass became 
cooler through radiation, or loss of heat into 
space, and the particles were drawn closer to- 



30 CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE, [chap. ill. 

gether, and brought into a spinning motion, so 
that they became a huge self-shining, highly- 
heated mass, somewhat ball-shaped. The motion 
was quickened as the particles became more united, 
but when the force which swept them past the 
centre of the entire mass was greater than the 
force which dragged them towards it, rings of the 
outermost portion were thrown off one by one, 
which continued the wheel-like motion of the 
mass from which they had been cast. Each ring 
became broken at the points where the particles 
had clustered thickest, and these fragments, still 
spinning, gathered each round its centre, and 
threw off rings in like manner. 

The huge ball in the centre of the whole be- 
came the sun, the ring fragments became the 
planets with their twofold motion, one top-like, 
the other round the sun, and the rings cast from 
them became their moons ; each of these bodies 
being in a molten state. In the case of Saturn 
not only were eight moons formed, but there re- 
main revolving round him the rings which so add 
to his beauty as an object in the telescope, and 
which are said to be made up of countless bodies. 



chap, in.] CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE. 31 

The comets and streams of meteors which be- 
long to our solar system were probably outlying 
fragments and smaller masses of the broken rings.* 

Each body ; sun, planet, moon, meteor, became 
globe-shaped in obedience to a law of the uni- 
verse known as attraction (from Latin words 
meaning drawn towards). It is the law by which 
the dewdrop, the tear that falls from the eye, the 
melted lead dropped from the top of a tower 
where shot is made, become round. The little 
particles draw closely together, and in so doing 
arrange themselves around the centre, to which 
they are each attracted. 

It is an important help to a clear understand- 
ing of the history of the earth to know what 
ground there is for the statement that each body 
of the solar system was in a molten condition. 

Now there are certain forces in nature, such as 
light, heat, electricity, &c, each of which can 
produce, or be produced by, the rest. From this 
it has been concluded that they are different 
forms or modes of one unknown force that cannot 
be destroyed. 

* See Note B. 



32 CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE, [chap. in. 

Thus, to borrow an illustration of what is meant: 
In the case of a church spire struck by lightning, 
the force leapt from the cloud to the spire- cross as 
light ; ran down the metal as electricity ; melted 
it as heat; then burrowed through the stone- 
work till it got to metal again, splitting the stone 
in its course as motion; found the metal and ran 
harmlessly down it as electricity, but changing in 
its course probably the positions one to another of 
the atoms composing the metal, as magnetism; 
and then burst through the stone-work again as 
motion, so injuring the spire throughout that it 
had to be pulled down and re-built. 

Therefore heat is not a substance, a subtle 
fluid, as was once thought, but a motion among 
the particles of matter. Bodies do not become 
heavier when they are heated, but they expand ; 
that is, the heat drives their particles asunder, so 
that the minute spaces between them are widened 
and the body takes up more room. Knowing this, 
a smith, before he puts hoops on casks or tires 
round wheels, makes them red-hot. The heat 
expands them, and as they cool they shrink and 
bind tightly round the cask or wheel. And you 



chap, in.] CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE. 33 

know that two pieces of dry wood can be set on 
fire by being rubbed together, and that two pieces 
of ice can be melted in the same way, proving 
that heat is a f mode of motion.' 

The enormous heat of each body in the solar 
system was produced by the particles striking 
against one another as they were driven together 
by the force of attraction. 

Another proof that the earth was once so hot 
as to be in a soft or melted state is afforded by 
its shape. It is not perfectly round, but slightly 
flattened at each pole, which was caused by its 
having been a fluid mass, spinning round like a 
top. In illustration of this, a lump of very soft 
clay or a mass of oil floating in liquid of the same 
density (or like weight bulk for bulk), will, when 
turned round, become flattened like the earth. 

Again, the rocks forming part of the solid out- 
side covering of the earth known as the crust, 
which have been fused together by fire, prove 
that the most intense heat must once have pre- 
vailed. 

Every hot body which ceases to receive heat 
becomes cold ; that is, parts with its heat ; the 



34 CREA TION AS TOLD B Y SCIENCE, [chap. hi. 

larger the body, the longer it takes to cool, the 
outside cooling before the centre. The sun is so 
vast a body that he is still white hot, giving out 
heat, light and other forces. The moons being 
the smallest bodies were the first to cool ; then the 
smaller planets, until we come to huge Jupiter 
and Saturn, which for aught we know may still 
be shedding some light and heat upon their 
moons. As each planet was once a small sun, 
there was a time, not to be counted by years, 
when the earth gave forth light and heat, and 
perchance supported life upon the now airless, sea- 
less moon. 

And although the earth's crust had become cool 
and hard enormous ages back, there is still a vast 
store of heat below, which shows its power in the 
volcano belching forth its streams of lava ; in the 
earthquake shaking down large cities and burying 
people in their ruins ; and in the hot springs from 
which, chiefly in Iceland, jets of boiling water are 
thrown to a great height. The deepest mines, 
which, compared to the thickness of the earth, 
are but as scratchings on a school globe, are so 
hot that were it not for currents of fresh air the 



chap, in.] CREA TION AS TOLD B V SCIENCE. 35 

miners could not work in them. This store of 
heat is slowly but surely slipping away into space, 
so that finally the earth will become cold to its 
very core. 

In brief, what the sun is the earth was millions 
of years ago ; and what the moon now is the 
earth will be millions of years hence, when the 
flowers will bloom and the children romp else- 
where. 

When the earth was a molten ball there were 
zones of vapour round it, which slowly condensed 
and fell as water into the valleys and cracks and 
lower levels of the cooling crust, filling them and 
thereby forming river, sea and ocean. 

Of the mode in which, as the cooling went on, 
there fell from these zones different materials 
which helped to prepare the earth for the support 
of the life that was to appear thereon, or of the 
views held about the thickness of the crust and 
the nature of the matter beneath it, I cannot here 
speak. These are among the guesses of the wise, 
which may or may not be true, and we have 
already more of well-proved statement than this 
chapter can contain. 



36 CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE, [chap. hi. 

The crust of the earth is made up of rocks of 
many kinds and ages, all of which have been 
either laid down by water or melted and mixed 
together by fire. Of the former, some are com- 
posed of grains of various stones, and others largely 
or wholly of the remains of once-living animals and 
plants: the fire-fused rocks containing no traces of 
such remains. It is this crust which tells so surely 
the story of those vast changes of which the earth 
has been the scene, and which are still going on; 
how the heat within is rending the surface in one 
place and upheaving or sinking it in other places ; 
how every little stream and brooklet is doing its 
work in altering the face of things, carrying soil 
to the sea, which is with hungry maw eating away 
the rock-bound coasts and softer fringes of the 
land; how, as the result of this, new continents 
and islands are slowly uprising from the ocean, to 
be one day dowered with the richest gifts of nature, 
studded with homesteads and cities, and the birth- 
place of wonders undreamt of which the spirit of 
man shall reveal ; when the ocean will in its turn 
cover the happy homes of now the sunniest lands. 
All this is beyond question, for there is no rest 



chap, in.] CREA TION AS TOLD B Y SCIENCE. 37 

in nature, not even in the things which look 
dullest and deadest; the particles that make up 
a stone being most likely ever moving, as we 
known the particles of a magnet are. 

Professor Huxley, in describing the surprising 
movements of little bodies which course through 
the fluid in the hairs of the common stinging- 
nettle, just as like little bodies float in our blood, 
repairing the ceaseless waste of our frames, says 
that if our ears could catch the murmur of the 
currents whirling in the numberless cells which 
make up every tree, 'we should be stunned as 
with the roar of a great city/ 

By way of illustration that the earth's face is 
ever changing, a study of its crust and a survey 
of its sea-depths tell us that our own island has 
been more than once buried under the waters. 
Since man first appeared, the greater part of the 
British Isles, of central Europe, of North America, 
and of northern Asia, have been beneath the sea, 
and the Caspian and Aral seas united as one great 
ocean. There is a legend of a lost island named 
Atlantis, placed by Plato west of the Pillars of 
Hercules in the Atlantic Ocean, and we know that 



38 CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE, [chap. hi. 

the Canary Isles and the Azores are the highest 
peaks of the continent which lies beneath those 
waters. A name has already been given to a 
vanished land which once stretched from the 
eastern coast of Africa. Of this land, which 
there is good reason for thinking was the birth- 
place of mankind, Madagascar, Ceylon and other 
islands to the north-east, perhaps far into the 
Pacific Ocean, are the unburied parts. The great 
desert of Sahara was once covered by a sea whose 
waves dashed against the mountain ranges of 
northern Africa, and we shall learn further on 
that there was a time when those ranges were 
united to Europe. 

No one knows how long a time passed between 
the molten state of the earth and the appearance 
upon its surface of the first forms of plant and 
animal life. That untold millions of years rolled 
away before the crust was cool enough to allow 
the steamy vapours above it to fall as water, is 
certain, and even then ages may have passed 
before other than the minutest kinds of life began 
to be. All that men of science can do is to get a 



chap, in.] CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE. 39 

rough idea of the time which it has taken to form 
a given thickness of certain layers of rock, each of 
which is called a stratum (from a Latin word 
meaning spread out). 

For example : a very large portion of the 
earth's crust consists of chalk, which is made up 
of the shells of exceedingly small creatures that 
live and die under water, creatures of a kind that 
are at this moment forming chalk beds at the 
bottom of our oceans. A layer of chalk one foot 
thick is not heaped up in less than one hundred 
years and it probably takes a much longer time, 
so that, as the chalk beds in some parts of Eng- 
land exceed one thousand feet in thickness, we 
are on the safe side in reckoning that their forma- 
tion occupied not less than one hundred thousand 
years. And as any table of the earth's crust will 
show you, there are rocks above and below the 
chalk, for the production of which millions heaped 
upon millions of years are required. 

Such vast lengths of time may startle us to 
whom but a few years of life here are given, 
but they count not with Him Who is from ever- 



40 CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE, [chap. ill. 

lasting to everlasting, and Who, working through 
the ages, has caused this earth to yield us that 
rich variety which ' age cannot wither/ And 
that variety too out of few materials ; for the 
bodies we dwell in ; the air we breathe- ; the 
water we drink ; and every animal, tree and 
flower, are for the larger part formed of three 
gases, known to us as oxygen, hydrogen and 
nitrogen, each of which by itself is invisible, 
tasteless and without smell ! Oxygen forms 
three-fourths of the uppermost crust of the earth. 

In reading these names and the names given 
to other things, always seek the reason why they 
have been chosen, but at the same time remem- 
ber that we know nothing as to what things are 
in themselves, and this will save you from many 
a boastful blunder of thinking that you know all 
about a substance because you have learnt its 
name. But in speaking of the few materials out 
of which such variety has come, there is some- 
thing more wonderful to be said, and with it I 
must close this chapter. 

It is, I hope, made clear to you, that the sun 
and all the bodies in his system are composed of 



chap. III.] CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE. 41 

the same materials, and by means of an instru- 
ment called a spectroscope, which enables astrono- 
mers to examine the light from the stars, no 
matter how many years it has been travelling to 
the earth, they are able to tell what metals are 
burning in those far-off bodies, and they find 
that those materials which are most plentiful 
in the stars are those which enter so largely into 
the structure of living creatures on the earth. 

It is therefore no blind guess, but well-proved 
truth, that matter throughout the universe of God 
is the same in kind, but in different states. In 
the sun and his fellow-suns, the stars, it is white- 
hot ; on the earth and some other planets (Mars, 
for example, on which a good telescope clearly 
shows the division of land and water and the 
increase of snow at the poles as the winter nears) 
it is cool enough to sustain life ; in the moon and 
meteors it is cold and barren; while in some of 
the cloud-like clusters in the sky called nebulce 
(from Latin nebula, a cloud), it is in a gas-like 
state. 

Having said thus much, it would be needful to 

say a good deal more, but I am only acting as a 
3 



42 CREATION AS TOLD BY SCIENCE, [chap. hi. 

finger-post to point what I think is the right road 
in which sound knowledge about this world's his- 
tory can be gained. You need not think that the 
lesson will be quickly learned, or that the know- 
ledge will ever be completed here. Science can 
never tell us all that we should like to know, or 
lead us beyond the veil ' where men grow blind 
though angels know the rest/ But we shall 
agree that her 'marvellous tale' has as much 
poetry in it as the old legends quoted, and cer- 
tainly more of fact. The cloud-like mass becomes 
a cooled globe, a fair and fertile world given man 
for dwelling-place, truly an Eden (land of delight, 
as that word means) where the soft air was wafted 
]aden with the fragrance of sweet flowers, where 
the birds warbled love-music, and the stream 
murmured its thanks for the jewels which the 
sunlight scattered on its bosom. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LEGENDS OF THE PAST ABOUT MANKIND. 

To the legends already given may be added a few 
concerning the early state of mankind. 

For thousands of years before the rudest kind 
of picture-writing was invented, the mind of man 
was busily speculating how that which he 
saw had come to pass, and not less, but rather 
more, would he wonder whence and how he him- 
self had come ; and out of that wonderment have 
grown the legends which have been handed down 
by old-world fathers to their children. These 
legends of a beginning, of the first man, and of a 
bright unflecked day whose glory had gone, 
legends in which a little fact was mixed up with 
much guessing, came to be looked upon as true 
every word, and were at last set down not 
as largely born of the fancy of man, but as history 
to be believed. And we find them lingering still 
among tribes and nations, because none readily 



44 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. iv. 

give up the old for the new and cut them- 
selves adrift from that which their fathers held 
dear. 

Nearly all speak of happy times spent without 
labour or care, and then of evil stealing in and 
beguiling men with a lie. Seeking to explain the 
mystery of sorrow and pain, of the guilt and hard 
toil to which none are strangers, they have 
dreamed of a past when these ills were not. 
' The Parsi looks back to the happy rule of King 
Yima, when men and cattle were immortal, when 
water and trees never dried up and food was 
plentiful, when there was no cold nor heat, no 
envy nor old age. The Buddhist looks back to 
the age of glorious soariDg beings who had no sin, 
no sex, no want of food till the unhappy hour 
when, tasting a delicious scum that formed upon 
the surface of the earth, they fell into evil and 
in time became degraded. It was King Chetiya 
who told the first lie, and the people who heard 
of it, not knowing what a lie was, asked if it were 
white or black or blue. Mens lives grew shorter 
and shorter, and it was King Maha Sagara who, 
after a brief reign of two hundred and fifty-two 



chap. IV.] ABOUT MANKIND. 45 

thousand years, made the dismal discovery of the 
first grey hair.' 

The Tibetans and Mongolians believe that the 
first human beings were as gods, but desiring a 
certain sweet herb, they ate of it, and lower 
feelings were thus aroused within them; their 
wings dropped off ; their beauty faded ; and the 
years of their life were made few and filled with 
bitterness. Passing by any full account of the 
Hindu story of a tree of life on a mountain ever 
bathed in sunshine, where no sin could enter and 
where dreadful dragons kept the way to the 
heavenly plants and fruits, and also of the Greek 
belief that far away there were the Islands of 
the Blessed with a garden full of golden apples 
guarded by an unsleeping serpent, we have the 
Greek myth which tells us that the first men were 
happy and without work, but with a desire to 
assert their power, and withal defy or mock the 
gods. Then Prometheus shaped a human form 
out of clay, and stole forbidden fire from heaven 
wherewith to give it life. This made Zeus 
angry, and he laid a plan by which the 
evils that mankind dreaded, and which were 



46 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. iv. 

sealed within a box guarded by Epimetkeus, the 
brother of Prometheus, should be let loose. He 
ordered the lord of fire to fashion the first woman, 
who by her charms should bring misery to man. 
Then the gods enriched her with beauty, cunning 
and fair speech, naming her Pandora or All-gifted, 
and Zeus took her to Epimetheus who, contrary to 
the advice of his brother to accept nothing from 
the gods, made her his wife, so smitten was he 
with her beautiful face and so beguiled by her 
smooth words. She had not been long with him 
before she opened the box, from whence came forth 
strife and sickness and all other ills that afflict 
mankind, and then hastily closing it, she shut up 
hope within, so that no comfort was given to men. 
In Persian tradition Ormuzd is said to have 
promised the first man and woman never- 
ending bliss if they would remain good. But 
a demon in the form of a serpent was sent by 
Ahriman, and they believed the lie he told them 
that the good gifts came from Ahriman, whom 
they thereupon worshipped. The demon then 
brought them fruits, which they ate, and thereby 
lost their happy state. Driven away, they killed 



chap. iv.] ABOUT MANKIND. 47 

beasts for food and wore their skins, and in the 
hearts of these unhappy creatures there raged 
hatred and envy, which cursed them and their 
children. 

The likeness of this legend to that in Genesis 
which tells how woe befel Adam and Eve when, 
tempted by a talking serpent, they ato forbidden 
fruit, is very striking. Both may have preserved 
the memory of a time when men were driven by 
great changes of climate, summer's heat giving 
place to long winter's cold, into untrodden wilds ; 
driven, as they thought, by the anger of an 
offended God. 

The mention of a serpent in both these legends 
reminds us what a great part that creature has 
played in many religions as an object of worship ; 
also as an emblem of both good and evil, as 
among the Persians and other Eastern nations ; 
of wisdom, as among African and other tribes who 
believe that the souls of some ancestors pass into 
snakes ; of eternity, when coiling itself in the form 
of a circle, as among the Egyptians and Phoenicians ; 
and of dominion, under the shape of a dragon, as 
among the Chinese. Crawling on its belly (its 



48 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. iv. 

name comes from the Latin, serpo, to creep) with 
stealthy, dart-like movement ; with glittering eye 
that held the shuddering looker-on, as if spell- 
bound ; and with horrid hiss ; no wonder that the 
strange reptile, so unlike beast or bird, came at 
last to be regarded in many lands as the symbol 
of evil, and that over its destruction feasts were 
held and sacrifices offered. That the legend of 
dire work wrought by it has found a place in 
Jewish writings is not matter for surprise, nor that 
people should make the common blunder of believ- 
ing that it was the devil who under such a form 
beguiled Adam and Eve into disobedience. 

Much could be said about the false beliefs to 
which this legend has given rise, but, happily, 
they are dying out, and we may pass them by and 
go on to see what truth underlies the ancient 
story of the fashioning of man. 

In the first account of creation in the book of 
Genesis we read that ' God created man in his 
image, in the image of God created he him ; male 
and female created he them/ The apostle Paul 
told the Greeks that ' as we are the offspring of 
God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is 



chap. IV.] ABOUT MANKIND. 49 

like unto gold or silver or stone graven by art and 
man's device/ and since we cannot think of Him 
Who is a Spirit, Who is everywhere, both in the 
heart of man and in the desert wilds, as having any 
form ; or length, breadth and height ; it is clear 
that these words in Genesis cannot be read by us as 
referring to the body of man, which has shape and 
form, but as referring to the soul, which is the 
man. The word man comes from a root which 
in Sanskrit means the thinker ; and soul has the 
same meaning; each name an old-world witness 
to the greatness of the being who is nearer to 
the God above him than he is to the brutes below 
him. With these he has very much in common, 
and the knowledge of this should engender kind- 
ness towards them, but a great gulf, as it seems to 
me, divides the two. Brutes have not, in the 
strict meaning of the term as we use it, a moral 
sense, or voice within which speaks to them of the 
Tightness or wrongness of what they do. They 
show love and hate, revenge, shame and pride, 
but they cannot commit sin, neither sink 
lower nor rise higher than they are. A hungry 
lion kills and eats a man, not for the mere love of 



50 LEGENDS OF THE PAST [chap. iv. 

killing, but to satisfy his hunger, for until the 
hunger returns, he will harm none of the creatures 
he preys upon. We do not say that the lion has 
done wrong, or that he ought not to have done 
such a thing, but we say that he has acted accord- 
ing to his brute nature, and we have outgrown the 
practice of past ages when animals and lifeless 
things were punished as criminals for evils which 
befel men through them.* But when men commit 
crimes, we say that they ought not so to do, 
and Yfe treat them as beings who have the 
power to do right as well as the power to do 
wrong ; the power to choose between a better and 
a worse, and thus rise nobly or fall shamefully. 

In the second account of creation in Genesis, 
we read that ' the Lord God formed man of the 
dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils 
the breath of life: and man became a living soul/ 

Now the matter of which the universe has 
been formed has neither been added to nor les- 
sened, and therefore it follows that at the birth of 
any living thing there is no bringing in of new 
matter, but the using over again of the old. 
* See Note C. 



chap, iv.] ABOUT MANKIND, 51 

Of the matter of which the earth is composed, 
the flower, the insect, the bird, the fish and the 
brute are alike made, and they live and grow and 
repair their waste by taking into themselves air 
and light and food. And the body of man is not 
something different from these, but one with them 
' of the dust of the ground/ and in itself not 
more wonderfully formed for its purpose than 
they for their purpose. Whether in the long 
course of ages it has come through lower forms to 
be what it is, or was fashioned by itself, we cannot 
say, for men of science are not agreed about this 
hard question. Neither does it matter ; ' that 
which we are we are/ and the query is not whether 
God has worked, giving to each moving thing ' a 
body as it hath pleased Him/ for of that we are 
sure ; but how He has worked, concerning which 
we may be content to remain ignorant. 

It is interesting to note that Science confirms 
in the main what is said in Genesis i. about the 
order in which life appeared upon the earth, since 
the deepest layers of rocks, which of course are the 
oldest, yield fossils of the lowest forms of life, forms 
so faint that whether they be the remains of plant 



52 LEGENDS OF THE PAST. [chap. iv. 

or of animal, or of both, is uncertain ; and the 
nearer we come to the surface the higher is the 
kind of life found to have been, until the highest 
of all, man himself, is reached, his presence being 
first shown in rudely chipped stone tools and wea- 
pons, and next by his remains. It may be added 
that the ancient Egyptians believed the first man 
to have been formed from the slime of the river 
Nile ; the Chinese that he was shaped from yellow 
clay ; the Peruvians that he was created by Divine 
power as ' animated earth ; ' one of the North 
American tribes that the Great Spirit formed two 
figures from clay, who were named c first man ' 
and ' companion ; ' another tribe says that men 
once lived underground, but that finding a hole 
through which to creep to the surface, they were 
tempted by the plentiful food to remain above 
ground. 



CHAPTER V. 

EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. 

It is believed that the birthplace of man was in 
some part of the earth where the climate was 
warm, so that but slight clothing and shelter were 
needed, and where food and the other gifts of 
Nature were so abundant, that life was no hard 
struggle. 

The exact spot we may never know, but nearly- 
all our present information points, as hinted at 
page 38, to some land now beneath the Indian 
Ocean.* The vast number of stone implements 
which have been found in Europe and many other 
parts of the globe were without doubt shaped by 
the hand of man many thousands of years ago ; 
but although they give some clue to the rude, 
wild state of those who made them, they throw 
no light whatever on the question of man's first 
home. His greatness among all living creatures, 
* See Note D. 



54 EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. [chap. v. 

from the earliest time of which we have glimpses, 
is seen in this : that although he was made naked 
and with a bodily frame much weaker than many 
of the brutes, he was able, armed only with clumsy 
stone weapons, to slay animals of a huge size. 
And this because as brutes they knew nothing of 
their own power, wherewith they could have 
crushed him with ease ; while as man he had the 
knowledge whereby so to use his weapons as to 
subdue and kill them. 

Let us see whether the records of changes in 
Europe throw any light upon man's arrival there. 

If we find imbedded in layers of rock the re- 
mains of animals and plants which could live only 
in hot regions, we may fairly conclude what the 
climate must have been when they flourished. 

Now from the nature of the fossils found in 
what are called the Tertiary rocks (from Lat. 
tertius, third), which compose the third great 
division of the water-laid rocks, it is certain that 
the climate of Europe was once very warm. Thick 
jungles and tangled forest-growths of plants akin 
to those in hot countries abounded, amongst which 
creatures of huge size and vast numbers roamed at 



chap, v.] EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. 55 

will, crunching the young shoots and branches 
between their enormous teeth ; while the river- 
creeks and swamps were the abode of wallowing 
crocodiles, sharks and turtles of monster size. 

In those rocks no remains of man in bones or 
stone implements have been found. 

After this a season of the bitterest cold, known 
as the Ice Age, slowly set in, and covered with 
thick plates of ice the northern parts of the earth. 
While this was going on, the continent of Europe, 
which had stretched beyond Ireland, gradually 
sank beneath the sea, so that a large part of it 
was changed into frozen straits and many ice-clad 
islands. In the long course of time the climate 
again became milder and the land ( arose from 
out the azure main/ so that Ireland was re-united 
to Britain, and Britain to the mainland, which was 
joined to Africa at different parts, the Mediterra- 
nean Sea being thereby divided into two large 
land-locked basins. Periods of cold and heat fol- 
lowed one another ; at one time the woolly-haired 
rhinoceros, mammoth or maned elephant, cave- 
bear and other wild beasts lived here, and when 
warmer times drove them to more northern parts, 



56 EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. [chap. v. 

hippopotamuses, lions, hyenas and such like tenants 
of hot countries came. 

It should be stated that there are seen to be 
three well-marked divisions of the great reign of 
cold, and it is not certain whether man had 
reached Europe before the first and most severe 
Ice Age set in, although certain relics which 
tend to prove that he had, have been lately 
found in caverns. The earliest traces of him are 
the stone tools and weapons found in ancient 
river-valleys and mingled with the remains of 
animals, of a kind long since extinct, that roamed 
over the north-west when there was dry land be- 
tween England and France, and when a wide 
plain over which the North Sea now sweeps 
stretched from Norfolk to Belgium. 

That the makers of these old stone implements 
must have lived in Britain many hundred thousand 
years ago is proved by the finding of tools of the 
rudest shape in the floors of limestone caverns 
which have been scooped out of the rock by the 
slow action of water. The limy matter in or 
beneath w T hich the implements are found im- 
bedded and which is called stalagmite (from Greek 



chap, v.] EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. 57 

stalagma, a drop) is formed as follows. Rain 
water passes through the limestone roof, and by 
means of the carbonic acid which it has derived 
from the air and from decayed leaves and the like, 
eats away particles of the roof through which it 
trickles and drops them beneath as carbonate of 
lime or stalagmite. Sometimes the dissolved 
particles cling to the roof and hanging from it 
form in course of time very beautiful columns 
called stalactites, but with these we have nothing 
to do. 

Now as the rate at which the stalagmite is laid 
down gives some clue to the age of the relics found 
beneath it when there is proof that it has not been 
disturbed, it will be well to enter one of the most 
famous caverns situate near Torquay, known as 
' Kent's Hole/ and see for ourselves of what age 
the several deposits doubtless are. 

First, there are blocks of limestone, which have 
fallen from the roof from time to time. 

Then black muddy mould, beneath which lies a 
bed of stalagmite varying from three inches to five 
feet in thickness. Underneath this are two layers, 
one only a few inches thick and composed mainly of 



58 EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. [chap. v. 

charred wood ; the other some feet in thickness 
and composed of earth which has been slowly 
washed in through the cavern's month. Then 
we come to a second bed of stalagmite of a dif- 
ferent character to the upper bed, and much 
thicker than it, reaching in some parts to a depth 
of twelve feet. Below all these lies a dark red 
sandy deposit called breccia (Italian, meaning a 
fragment) the depth of which is unknown. 

In the uppermost layer there were found relics 
of a time before the Romans invaded Britain, 
which we may safely put down as 2000 years 
old. In the upper stalagmite there were found 
bones of the rhinoceros, elephant, hyena, &c, and 
of man, with flakes struck off flints by human 
hands and also the cores from which they had 
been struck. Now without going farther down 
at present, how can we get at the age of this 
stalagmite ? There have been cut into it certain 
letters and dates, one of which — ' Robert Hedges, 
of Ireland, Feb. 20, 1688' — we may believe is 
genuine, because it was discovered just 50 years 
ago, on a huge boss of stalagmite rising up from 
the floor ; and although there are others of earlier 



chap, v.] EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. 59 

elate, we will take it as our point of reckoning. 
It is described by the man who saw it in 1825 
as covered over with a thin film of stalagmite, a 
description which applies to it now, although the 
water has been dripping on it ever since. 

Now the carbonate of lime which has gathered 
upon that cutting since 1688 does not exceed the 
twentieth of an inch in thickness, and we have to 
account for a deposit which is in some places five 
feet thick. By an easy sum in multiplication we 
find that it takes 3720 years for the water trick- 
ling through the roof of Kent's Hole to deposit 
one inch of stalagmite, and therefore 44,640 
years to deposit one foot. Five feet consequently 
require two hundred and twenty-three thousand 
years ! 

But we have not done yet. There is the layer 
of charred wx>od, called the 'black band' which 
yielded hundreds of flint tools, a bone needle, 
burnt bones, remains of hyenas, bears, oxen, &c. 
There is the cave earth with relics of a like kind, 
and then we come to the lower bed of stalagmite, 
which contained bones of the cave-bear only, and 
which is in some places more than double the 



60 EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. [chap. v. 

thickness of the upper bed, and requiring at the 
least five hundred thousand years for its forma- 
tion ! 

It is underneath this that in the solid mass called 
breccia there were found mingled with immense 
numbers of teeth and bones of the cave-bear, flint 
implements, which without doubt were shaped by 
the hand and skill of man. Enormous as these 
figures are, I have been careful to understate 
rather than overstate them, for there are proofs 
that within this same cavern an inch of stalagmite 
is not laid down by water in less than 5000 
years, at which rate the time needed for the de- 
posit of the upper bed alone is three hundred 
thousand years ! 

The thickness of layers of stalagmite is not 
always a test of the great age of remains found in 
them or below them, as in some caverns they are 
formed at a very much quicker rate than in 
others, and if the proof of man's early pre- 
sence on the earth rested on this alone, it would 
be needful to speak with caution. But further 
proof is at hand in the worked flints found in the 
river-gravels of England and France, and in the 



chap, v.] EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. 61 

kind of animals with whose remains his own are 
found, that man lived in northern Europe towards 
the close of the later Ice Age, if not earlier, and 
therefore hundreds of thousands of years ago ; 
although the actual time of his arrival can never 
be known. 

We do not know to what race the men who 
first trod the soil of Europe belonged. They 
came with the mammoth, cave-bear, &c., and we 
cannot tell whither they went. There is, how- 
ever, some clue to those who followed them. 
These were dwellers in caves, living chiefly on the 
flesh of the reindeer, which creature they hunted 
as far as the northern land of bitter cold, where 
the snow never melts and the blessed light shines 
but six months in the year. The manners and 
customs and general kind of life of the tribes 
found there at this day, known as the Eskimos, 
are so very like all that can be learnt about the old 
cave-men of what is called the Reindeer Period, 
that there is good reason for believing that the one 
is descended from the other. 

After a time which years fail to reckon, when 
the waters, ever working c without haste and with- 



62 EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. [chap. v. 

out rest/ had cut a channel between England and 
France, there came to Europe from the East race 
after race of people who were far higher than the 
cave-men. The lowest among them, of whom 
traces are found along the shores of the Baltic 
Sea, had tamed the dog, while those who lived 
in houses built upon piles driven into the bottom 
of lakes in Switzerland and elsewhere, had learnt 
to till the soil. 

Mankind at first were few in number, but as 
the mouths to be fed multiplied faster than the 
food wherewith to fill them, it was needful either 
that the ground should be tilled or that some 
should leave in search of food elsewhere, and 
since man must advance somewhat before he 
becomes a husbandman, the latter course would be 
chosen. 

So, hunger-driven or forced away by change of 
climate, and also, it may be, led on by desire to 
see what the w r orld was like and to find excite- 
ment in chasing animals to kill and eat, some 
would leave, and thus give up a settled kind of 
life, which tends to peaceful progress, for a roving 
life. The pressing wants of the body urged them 



chap, v.] EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. 63 

to wander far and wide, and soon long distances 
would divide the hunters. This would lead to the 
peopling of the world in many parts, and in the 
course of long ages to the fixing of wandering 
tribes wherever food was to be had, and the land 
seemed fair and fertile. 

From this we may understand how the earliest 
dwellers in Europe were driven thither. They 
were but rude savages, living by hunting and fish- 
ing. Man is first of all a hunter, then he finds 
out that some of the animals which he kills for 
food can be made useful to him in other ways, so 
he tames them. This leads him to follow the 
more settled life of a shepherd, and when he be- 
comes a tiller of the soil, or farmer, he stays in 
one place. There the family grows into a tribe 
and the tribe into a nation. 

Thus far I hope to have made clear to you the 
mode in which mankind slowly overspread various 
parts of the world, and I have now to give you, in 
as simple a form as the subject will permit, an 
account of some ancient peoples who have played 
a markedly eventful part in the history of 
mankind. 



64 EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. [chap. v. 

I shall take you back to the time when man 
had outgrown his first rude savage state ; but, so 
many are the years, we shall still be a long way 
beyond the line where the history of nations 
stands out clearly before us. The story is worth 
your careful attention, for to know who these 
peoples were and what they did, is to learn the 
thoughts of ancestors whose words we speak and 
to find out how we have become what we 
are. 

The old writers, in speaking of ' the world/ 
took for granted that it did not extend beyond the 
countries of which they knew. Now although its 
real size and shape are well known to us, we are 
too apt to think only of that part of it where the 
highest races have lived, and to leave out the 
other parts with their millions of people still in a 
savage or half-civilized state. This must be borne 
in mind in reading what follows, since the limits 
of this book forbid my stating what is known of 
the manner of life and religions of the numerous 
races scattered over the northern regions of Asia, 
over large tracts of Africa and America, and 
throughout the many islands of the southern seas. 



chap, v.] EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. 65 

It is certain that the people to be presently de- 
scribed were not the first civilizers, but were young 
as compared to Egypt and China, and built up 
much of their future greatness out of the ruins of 
more ancient cultures. For apart from the 
rude savages whose early struggles made progress 
easier to those who came after them, there are 
found over wide regions of Europe and Asia the 
traces of a people who have immensely helped 
the advancement of mankind. I am now speak- 
ing of the ancestors of the great Mongol race, of 
the Tatars (wrongly called Tartars) and of the 
many tribes of Northern Asia, of Southern India, 
Malay, and other parts of South-western Asia; 
also of the Finns, Lapps, Hungarians and smaller 
remnants, such as the Basque dwellers in the 
Pyrenees, lingering in out-of-the-way places. 

Many of these have preserved the manners, 
customs and beliefs of a bygone day, and having 
reached a certain point, seem to have stood still 
while the rest of the world has moved onward. The 
history of mankind is made up of struggles be- 
tween races in which the weaker have been stamped 
out or enslaved, but these people, whose forefathers 



66 EARLY RACES OF MANKIND. [chap. v. 

were by turns conquerors and conquered, are 
amongst us, many of them free and independent, 
still worshipping the heavenly bodies and the 
spirits of their ancestors as did their forefathers 
thousands of years ago. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ARYAN OR INDO-EUROPEAN NATIONS. 

Thousands of years ago there dwelt probably in 
Central Asia, scattered over the wide plains which 
spread east of the Caspian sea and north-west of 
1 Hindustan, a number of tribes united together by 
the same manners and customs, and speaking 
somewhat different dialects of a common tongue, 
m short, the offspring of one mother-nation. 

These tribes consisted of two great branches,, 
from one of which have come the races that have 
peopled nearly the whole of Europe ; that is to 
say, the Celts (whom Julius Caesar found in 
Britain when he invaded it) ; the Germans and 
Slavonians ; the Greeks and Eomans ; while from 
the other branch the Medes, Persians and Hindus, 
with some lesser peoples in Asia, have sprung. 

A learned German has called this ' the discovery 
of a new world.' And it is certainly a great 
revelation to us that the Hindu and the Icelander ; 



63 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

the Russian and the Italian ; the Englishman and 
the Frenchman ; are children whose forefathers 
lived in one home. A knowledge of this fact must 
aid the growth of kindlier feeling between man 
and man, and lessen the unreasoning dislike which 
we are apt to nurture against foreigners. 

So true is it that ' God hath made of one blood 
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of 
the earth, and hath determined the times before 
appointed and the bounds of their habitation ; 
that they should seek the Lord, if haply they 
might feel after him and find him, though he be 
not far from every one of us.' 

Arya is a Sanskrit word, meaning noble, 
of a good family. It is believed to have come 
from the root ar, to plough, which is found in era, 
the Greek word for earth; earth meaning that 
which is eared or ploughed. We find the word 
so used in Tusser, an early English poet, who says, 

1 Such land as ye break up for barley to sow, 
Two earths at the least, ere ye sow it, bestow.' 

That is, plough it twice. And in Isaiah xxx. 24, 
we read of 'the oxen and the young asses that 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 69 

ear the ground.' Aryan was the name given 
to the tillers of the soil and to householders, 
and the title by which the once famous Medes 
and Persians were proud to call themselves. 
We find King Darius styling himself an Arya of 
the Aryans. It became a general name for the 
race who obtained possession of the land, and 
survives in Iran, the modern native name of 
Persia and in other names of places ; even, as 
some think, in Ireland, which is called Erin by 
the natives. The name Indo-European is some- 
times used instead of Aryan, and it is a better 
name because it conveys a clearer idea of the 
races included therein. 

We will now enquire more fully into the old 
life of this interesting people, first treating of 
them in their common home, which will cause 
something more to be said about legends of the 
past ; then of their arts and customs ; the source 
from whence comes our knowledge of them ; their 
religion ; their myths, from which, as already 
hinted in the opening pages of this book, most of 
the myths and legends and even some beliefs of 



70 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

the chief nations of Europe, have come ; and 
lastly, of the breaking-tip of the tribes, when the 
children went forth, heaven-guided, to plant the 
seed from which grew empires that have been the 
wonders of the world. Such survey will bring us 
near the time when some great religions had their 
rise, and of these an account will fitly follow. 

(a) THE ARYANS IN THEIR UNDIVIDED STATE. 

In the Zend-Avesta, or sacred book of the 
old Persian religion, only fragments of which 
have been preserved, there are some statements 
about the country peopled by the Aryans which 
seem to hold a little truth. 

Sixteen countries are spoken of as having been 
given by Ormuzd for the Aryans to dwell in, 
each of which became tainted with evil. The first 
was named Airyanem-Vaego and it was created a 
land of delight, but, to quote the ancient legend 
'the evil being Ahriman, full of death, made a 
mighty serpent and winter, the work of the Devas J 
(or bad spirits). 

The land thus vaguely spoken of is believed to 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 71 

be the highest ground in Central Asia, and to 
have been the scene of changes which gave rise to 
a cold climate with but two months of summer in 
the year. In this Persian legend we have one of 
the many traditions which have come down from 
the past concerning disaster and ruin befalling 
fair lands where men once dwelt in peace. The 
most widespread of these, being in fact found 
among all the leading races of the world, is that 
which tells of a fearful flood which drowned man- 
kind. The sea-shells and fossil fishes imbedded 
in rocks now many hundreds of feet above the 
level of the sea could only be accounted for by sup- 
posing either that the sea once came up and 
covered the highest hills, leaving its wrecks 
behind ; or that the mountains had been down in 
the sea; and as the former seemed the more 
likely of the two, the tradition took that shape. 

I shall have to resist the temptation to relate 
many of these traditions, but the Chaldaean must 
be told because of its striking likeness to the 
record of the Flood in the Book of Genesis. There 
are in fact two Chaldaean accounts of the Deluge, 
one of which, belonging to a series of legends on 



72 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

tablets found among the ruins of Nineveh, has of 
late come to light, and resembles that now 
given. 

It is said that the god Ilu (see page 201) warned 
Xisuthrus of a flood by which mankind would be 
destroyed, and commanded him to write a history 
of all things and to bury it in the City of the 
Sun. He was then to build a ship, and take 
refuge in it with his relations and friends, and 
also every kind of beast and bird, with needful 
food for all. This he did, and when the flood 
came sailed as he was bidden ( to the gods/ That 
he might know whether the waters had abated, he 
sent out birds three times, and the third time they 
came back no more, by which he judged that the 
earth was again dry land. Looking out from a 
window he found that the ship had stranded upon 
the side of some mountain, and he thereupon 
quitted it with his wife and daughter. After 
worshipping the earth and offering sacrifice to the 
gods, he was translated to live in their high dwell- 
ing-place, and as he arose he bade farewell to 
those whom he had left in the ship, and told them 
to return to Babylon and dig up the books which 



CHAP. VI.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 73 

he had buried. This they did, and taught from 
those books the true religion to the Chaldseans. 

The Babylonians and the Jews were members of 
the same race, and this may explain the likeness 
between their traditions. Thus the Chaldsean 
records speak of the building of the Tower of 
Babel, the legend of which has just been found 
on another tablet from Nineveh, how the first 
inhabitants of the earth, glorying in their own 
strength and size and despising the gods, under- 
took to raise a tower whose top should reach 
the sky in the place where Babylon now stands, 
but when it approached the heaven, the 
winds helped the gods, and overthrew the work 
upon its builders ; then the gods confused the 
speech of men, who till that time had all spoken 
the same language. The Bible gives ten patri- 
archs who lived before the flood, each of whom 
died at a great age, and the Chaldsean history 
speaks of ten kings whose reigns, added together, 
amount to 432,000 years, while in Arab, Chinese, 
Hindu and German legend, ten mythical persons 
are said to have lived before the dawn of history. 
So strongly runs the likeness between the old 



74 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

traditions, a likeness to be expected, since they 
are the children of one parent. That parent was 
the busy, wonder-filled mind of man, when it 
shaped the creatures of its fancy out of the facts 
around ; creatures that have found a home among 
every people. 

You must read elsewhere the story of the Nor- 
thern giants who were sent to overturn the earth, 
and who drowned all mankind save an old couple 
whom the gods told to dance on the bones of the 
earth (by which of course the stones are meant) 
nine times, whence arose nine pairs of men and 
women ; of the Greek and his wife who, when the 
flood came, took refuge in an ark and leaving it 
when the land was dry, threw stones behind 
them, which were thereupon changed into men ; 
of the Hindu who saved the life of a fish, for 
which kind deed the grateful creature rescued him, 
when the great waters came, by fastening his ship 
to its horn ; and of the South Sea fisherman who 
by ill Kick caught his hooks in the water-god's 
hair, which so angered the god that he drowned 
the world, but, strange to say, spared the fisher- 
man. 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 75 

Leaving the legends, it would seem that the 
Aryans had gradually spread themselves over that 
part of Asia called Bactria ; the tribes that after- 
wards settled in Persia and India dwelling, some 
in the north-east, others in the south-east ; while 
the western part of the country was occupied by 
the tribes that were to people Europe. We shall 
see at the end of this chapter in what order they 
are thought to have left. 

(b) THEIR STATE OF CIVILIZATION. 

Of the forefathers of the Aryans nothing is 
known. Remains yielded by every quarter of the 
globe show that mankind passed through a state 
when the rudest and roughest tools were gladly 
used, and there can be little doubt that although 
the Aryans had learnt the value of metals, they 
were the offspring of people who had in a far-off 
past made shift with stone, bone, wood, and such 
like materials. At the unknown period when 
the Aryans dwelt on the rich pastures and fertile 
soil of their high table-land they were far in 
advance of a savage state. They were not dwellers 



76 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

in tents like the Arabs, nor in waggons like the 
Scythians, but they had reached the settled life of 
a people whose dwellings were grouped into vil- 
lages or small towns, between which roads had 
been made. Their houses were strongly built, 
with walls round them. Their chief wealth 
was in bulls and cows, and they had horses, dogs, 
pigs, goats, fowls, &c. In fact, the wild stocks of 
several of our domestic animals still exist in 
Central Asia, from whence they were brought by 
the Aryans into Europe. They did not depend 
entirely for food upon milk and flesh, but tilled 
the soil a little, sowing barley, and perhaps wheat, 
which they ground in mills. They had ploughs 
and other implements, and also weapons of bronze. 
Gold, silver and copper were known among them, 
but probably iron was as yet unknown. The arts 
of weaving and pottery-making were practised, 
and they had small boats moved by oars, but 
without masts and sails. They had learnt to 
count as far as one hundred, and to divide the 
year into twelve months, as suggested chiefly 
by the movements of the moon. Names were 
given to the members of families related by mar- 



chap. VI.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 77 

riage as well as by blood. A welcome greeted 
the birth of children as of those who brought joy 
to the home, and the love that should be felt be- 
tween brother and sister was shewn in the names 
given ; bhrdtar being he who sustains or helps ; 
svdsar, she who pleases or consoles. The daughter 
of each household was called duhitdr, from duh, 
a root which in Sanskrit means to milk, by which 
we know that the girls in those days were the 
milking maids. Father comes from a root pd> 
which means to protect or support; mother, mdtar, 
has the meaning of maker. Thus did the old 
words carry within them the sense of those duties 
which each member of the family owed to the rest. 
The groups of families which made up a tribe 
or clan were ruled by a chief, aided by heads of 
households, and under these the laws were carried 
out. A king was set over all ; one doubtless 
chosen for his bravery and wisdom, who commanded 
the army and made peace or war. He was also 
supreme judge, but any cases upon which he felt 
it hard to decide were settled by what is called 
ordeal or the judgment of God, as it was believed 
to be. That the innocence or guilt of an accused 



78 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

person might be arrived at, lie had to submit to 
some test, such as being passed through fire (from 
which comes our phrase about any one who has 
been scolded ; we say he has been 'hauled over the 
coals J ), or thrown into water, and, in the words of 
the law-book of the ancient Hindus, ' he whom 
the flame does not burn and he who does not float 
without effort on the water, must be accepted as 
truthful/ Trial by ordeal was common among 
ancient nations, and was supported by both law 
and clergy in the dark ages of Europe. 

(c) SOURCE OF OUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE 
ARYANS. 

Ethnology (from Greek ethnos, a tribe or nation, 
and logos, a discourse) is the name given to the 
science which treats of the races of mankind. Our 
present knowledge strengthens the early belief 
that man first arose in one part of the earth, but 
the result of many causes, such as changes in 
climate, removal to new lands, different food, 
working through long ages, has been to create 
wide varieties in his descendants, such as we 



chap. VI.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 79 

see between an Englishman and a Negro, and 
between a Hindu and a Chinaman. In dividing 
mankind into races, men of science have tried 
many methods, tracing out likeness in shape and 
size of skull, in colour of skin and hair, in manners, 
customs and beliefs, in language, &c, but no one 
of these has succeeded in accounting for all the 
varieties in the human race. 

What immense service one of these methods 
has been will now appear. 

The Aryans, whose manner of life has been 
sketched in its main features, have left behind 
them no ruins of temples or tombs, no history 
stamped on pieces of baked clay or cut on rocks, 
no weapons or tools of stone, bone or metal, so 
far as is known, and it is by means of language 
alone that we can rebuild the villages of the old 
Aryan land and bring before the mind some 
picture of life in them thousands of years ago. 

When a bone with scratchings upon it is dug 
from out a cavern floor, there may be room for 
doubt whether the hand of a man working with 
stone tool, or the teeth of a brute, have made the 
marks ; but wherever we find words there is no 



80 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

doubt that man has used them : and it was 
through them that the secret about these Aryan 
forefathers came to light. 

There were seen to be so many points of 
likeness between certain languages which could 
be accounted for only by supposing those languages 
to be the offspring of one mother-tongue. This 
likeness was noticed in the homely words and 
common names which make up so much of the 
speech of everyday life ; it was most marked in 
the numerals and pronouns; and, what is of 
greater importance, in the forms of grammar; — 
the endings of nouns and verbs ; the adding of 
the letter s to form plurals, &c. 

As language is 'a map of the science and 
manners of the people who speak it/ the thing 
for which a name exists must have been known, 
and if it be found with the same name among 
nations widely apart and between whom there has 
been no meeting for ages, we have fair proof that 
their ancestors once lived together and used the 
thing. If we find a common name for house, boat, 
plough, grain, in Sanskrit, Greek, and other lead- 
ing languages, we may be nearly certain that 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 81 

these things were known to the tribes before they 
parted, whereas if the name for sea differs, it 
follows that the Aryans were an inland race and 
knew nothing of the wide waters that laved the 
distant coasts. There is further proof of this in 
the smallness of their skiffs or canoes, which it is 
clear were for river use, since, as already stated, 
they had no masts or sails. 

There are certain differences in the words, 
arising from the changes to which the sounds of a 
language are liable, one sound being often used in 
the place of another, as is the case, for example, 
with children in trying to utter certain words. 
These changes were found to have taken place 
upon a large scale in all the Indo-European 
languages, and their nature is now fully known 
and set forth in modern grammars. They are 
grouped together under the title of ' Grimm's 
Law/ from the name of their discoverer. 

It is true it does not follow that the English 
and Germans are of the same race because their 
languages are so much alike, for there are cases in 
history where a people, without any change in 
itself, has lost its mother-tongue and spoken the 



82 THE ARYAN NATIONS, [chap. vi. 

language of its conquerors, but this has taken 
place only when it has been so entirely subdued 
as to be civilized by the victors, as for example 
when the Romans conquered Gaul and wellnigh 
stamped out the Gaulish speech, putting Latin in 
its place. This, however, does not apply to the 
Aryan nations in their wars with non-Aryan 
races. 

Before giving a list of the languages known 
to be offshoots from one parent stem, it may be 
well to explain that language is everywhere found 
to be in one of the three following states : 

First, When roots, by which is meant sounds 
from which all languages spring, are used as words 
without any change of form. 

Secondly, When two roots are joined together 
to form words. 

Thirdly, When two roots are joined together, but 
when they, thus joined, lose their independent form. 

The Chinese language, which consists of words 
of one syllable, is the best living example of lan- 
guage in its first stage, and beyond which, it is 
held by a few learned men, some languages never 
rise, however long they may live. 



chap, vij THE ARYAN NATIONS. 83 

The Finnic, Hungarian, &c., languages represent 
language in its second stage. 

The Aryan and Semitic languages represent 
language in its third and highest stage. 

This example will show the change which the 
roots of certain languages undergo : 

First state . . He is like God. 
Second state . He is God-like. 
Third state . . He is God-ly. 

Table of Aryan or Indo-European Languages. 

In India : — 

Sanskrit, The language in which the Vedas or 
sacred books of the Brahmans are 
written, and the parent of the 
modern dialects of Hindustan. 
Zend,. . The language of the ancient Persians 
(so-called.) and of their sacred book, the 

Zend-Avesta. 

The languages now spoken in Persia, Afghan- 
istan, Kurdistan, Armenia and Ceylon, and the 
dialects of the Gypsies are Aryan, those strange 
wanderers having without doubt come from India. 



84 THE ARYAN NATIONS, [chap. vi. 

In Europe : — 

Celtic, . Once the language of a large part of 
Europe, but now spoken only in 
Wales, the Isle of Man, and some 
parts of Ireland and Scotland. 

Teutonic, Under which name the languages that 
have given birth to the English, 
German, Icelandic, Danish, Nor- 
wegian, Swedish, Dutch, &c, are 
grouped. 

Slavonic, The language spoken in many dialects 
all over Russia in Europe and part 
of Austria. 

Greek, . The parent of modern Greek. 

Latin, . The language of ancient Rome (which 
was in the little province of 
Latium) and the parent of the 
Italian, French, Spanish, Portu- 
guese and Wallachian languages. 

No one of these can be pointed out as the 
source from which the others have come, because 
although Sanskrit has preserved its words in their 
most primitive state, each of the others has also 



CHAP. VI.] 



THE ARYAN NATIONS. 



85 



kept some form which Sanskrit has lost. It is one 
of the few facts of history that before the Hindus 
crossed the mountains that lay between Bactria 
and India, and before the Celts and other tribes 
left for the west, their common ancestors spoke 
the same language ; a language so firmly settled that 
Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, Germanic, Slavonic 
and Celtic words are simply alterations of its words 
and not additions to it. A few plain examples 
will best make this clear, and close what some of 
you will call the driest chapter in the book. 





Sanskrit. 


Zend. 


Greek. 


Latin. 


Gothic. 


Slavonic. 


Irish. 


Father . 


pitar 


patar 


pater 


pater fadar 




athair 


Mother . 


matar 


matar 


meter 


mater 




mati 


mathair 


Brother . 


bhratar 


bratar 


phrater 


frater 


brothar 


brat' 


brathair 


Sister . . 


svasar 


qanhar 




soror 


svistar 


sestra 


siur 


Daughter 


duhitar 


dughdhar 


thugater 


... 


dauhtar 


... 


dear (?) 


Me . . . 


me 


me 


me 


me 


mik 


man 


me 


House . 


dama 


demana 


domos 


domus 


... 


domii 


daimh 


Boat . . 


naus 


naw 


naus 


navis 






noiornai 


Ox & Cow 


5 ^gaus J 


gao 


bous 


bos 


Anglo- 
Saxon. 


govjado 


bo 


Horse . 


asu, asva 


aspa 


hippos 


equus 


eoh 

Old High 
German. 


... 


ech 


Sow . . 


su 


... 


hus 


sus 


su 


svinia 
Polish. 


suig 


Mouse . 


mush 


... 


mus 


mus 


A 

mus 
Mceso- 
Gothic. 


mysz 
Slavonic. 




Two . . 


dwa 


dwa 


duo 


duo 


twa 


dwa 


dau 


Three. . 


tri 


thri 


treis 


treis 


thri 


tri 


tri 



I have sought to make this matter simple 
enough that you may see how language is filled 



86 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

with wealth of knowledge about the past, and 
how sure a guide it is to the manners, customs 
and beliefs of those who < being dead, yet speak ' 
by it. 

(d.) THE RELIGION OF THE ARYANS. 

In the second part of my former book, c The 
Childhood of the World/ I tried to show by what 
steps man rose from the worship of sticks and 
stones and rivers, to a belief in one all-wise and 
all-good God. It is not needful to go over that 
ground again, as in learning from whence the 
Aryan drew his idea of the gods, we shall see to 
what extent he had got beyond the lower beliefs of 
his ancestors. He had not reached the highest 
idea to which man can climb, that God is the 
unseen life of all and that ' there is none other but 
he/ for his belief was shaped from what he saw. 

Before the notions about things which the 
senses give had been corrected by reason and the 
long experience of mankind, man explained the 
movements of nature by his own movements. He 
knew that he moved because he lived and willed 
to do whatever he did, and that the dead moved 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 87 

not. So he believed that sun, moon, stars, clouds, 
rivers and the like, had life within them because 
they moved, and that theirs was a freer, stronger 
life than his own ; obeying a will more powerful 
than his will. By a short step the thing spoken of 
as alive came to be looked upon as a person, and 
where two or more names were given to the same 
object the idea of two or more persons sprang 
therefrom. The spread of this idea would be 
aided by the division of lifeless things thus 
believed to have a personal life into masculine 
or feminine gender, of which some languages 
afford such curious and, to those who are learning 
them, tedious illustrations. 

Although the Aryan addressed the earth as 
' mother/ and invoked her to grant him blessings, 
he did not regard it as a god. How much there 
was in it to arouse his sense of wonder it is not 
hard for us to see, but it appeared to him to 
depend, like himself, upon some greater powers 
who could plunge it in darkness or withhold from 
its thirsty soil the welcome rain. So he looked 
up to the broad heaven that arched in the earth 



88 THE ARYAN NATIONS, [chap. VI. 

at every point, and from whence came each morn- 
ing the light that cheered his life and took away 
the fear with which the night filled his heart. 
And there, so it seemed to him, lived and moved 
in strength and majesty the great lord of all, 
whom he named Dyaus, from a root div or dyu, 
which means to shine. This was the most ancient 
of the names by which the Aryans spoke of him 
who seemed the god of gods, and it is the name by 
which you and I often speak of the one God in 
Whom we believe, for it was borne away with other 
cherished home-words by the tribes when they left 
their mother-country, and as wherever they went 
the same heaven , was above them, it was not 
readily forgotten. Dyaus is the same as Zeus in 
Greek ; Jovis and Deus in Latin ; and Tiw in 
German. From Deus comes our word Deity,l 
which therefore means the God Who is light, and 
from Tiu, Saxon god of war, comes our Tuesday. 
In the Rig- Veda or chief sacred book of the 
Brahman s, the hymns of which have preserved the 
earliest known form of the Aryan religion, the 
gods are called deva, meaning bright 

Dyaus, the god of the bright sky and chief 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS, 89 

deity among the Aryans, was, as will be seen in 
the chapter on the older Hindu religion, only one 
of several names by which they invoked the 
moving powers of nature. The same name was 
given to different objects in the heavens, and the 
same object was called by as many names as the 
fancy of the onlooker invented. As the powers of 
nature came to be thought of as persons, it was by 
an easy step that they were called husband and wife, 
mother and son, brother and sister. It was long 
ago a beautiful and forceful myth among man- 
kind, and one still found among races in the 
myth-making stage, that heaven and earth are the 
father and mother of all things. Upon this 
matter a great light is thrown by the name 
Jupiter. This word means what in the Veda 
Dyaus-pitar, and in the Greek Zen-pater, mean — 
Heaven-Father ! Professor Max Miiller, who has 
the rare gift of putting into sweetest words things 
that to the common eye look the driest, writes 
thus about this most interesting fact : — 

' We have in the Veda the invocations Dyaus- 
pitar, the Greek ZsvKdrep, the Latin Jupiter : and 
that means in all the three languages what it 



90 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

meant before these three languages were torn 
asunder — it means Heaven-Father ! These two 
words are not mere words ; they are to my mind 
the oldest poem, the oldest prayer of mankind, or 
at least of that pure branch of it to which we belong 
— and I am as firmly convinced that this prayer 
was uttered, that this name was given to the 
unknown God before Sanskrit was Sanskrit, and 
Greek was Greek, as wdien I see the Lord's Prayer 
in the languages of Polynesia and Melanesia, I 
feel certain that it was first uttered in the lan- 
guage of Jerusalem. We little thought when we 
heard for the first time the name of Jupiter, 
degraded it may be by Homer or Ovid into a 
scolding husband or a faithless lover, what sacred 
records kiy enshrined in this unholy name. We 
shall have to learn the same lesson again and 
again in the Science of Religion, viz., that the 
place whereon we stand is holy ground. 
Thousands of years have passed since the Aryan 
nations separated to travel to the North and the 
South, the West and the East : they have each 
formed their languages, they have each founded 
empires and philosophies, they have each built 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS, 91 

temples and razed them to the ground ; they have 
all grown older, and it may be wiser and better ; 
but when they search for a name for what is most 
exalted and yet most dear to every one of us, when 
they wish to express both awe and love, the 
infinite and the finite, they can but do what their 
old fathers did when gazing up to the eternal sky, 
and feeling the presence of a Being as far as far 
and as near as near can be ; they can but combine 
the self-same words, and utter once more the 
primeval Aryan prayer, Heaven-Father, in that 
form which will endure for ever, - Our Father 
which art in heaven.' 

Besides having common names for their chief 
gods, the Aryans had words to express the duties 
which they felt must be fulfilled towards the 
powers whose smiles they coveted and whose 
frowns they feared ; as sacrifice, prayer, altar, 
spirit. 

Sacrifice is the oldest of all rites. Man's first 
feeling towards the gods was that of fear. They 
ruled over all things, life and death were in their 
hands, and therefore it seemed needful to offer 
them something to win their favour. v When he 



92 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

saw that the blessings of heaven outnumbered the 
ills, fear gave place to love, and thank-offerings were 
made. As the feeling grew that the gods must be 
better as well as stronger, the desire to have their 
forgiveness for bad deeds done and for good deeds 
left undone led to sin-offerings. 

And as the sense of a common need was 
stronger than any other tie that bound the family 
together, the father, as its head, built the altar 
and laid the gift upon it. These gifts of things 
which could be seen and touched were a simple, 
and in fact the only, mode by which man could 
show the feeling of his heart, but in course of 
time the first meaning of the gifts was lost and 
they were looked upon not merely as showing 
something, but as being something. The place 
where the altar stood was revered, there men raised 
a temple (so called from the Latin templum, which 
means a space cut off), and a class of men grew 
up who made easy claim to power with the gods 
which they said was not given to all men. Thus 
religious rites, which were believed to have certain 
charms about them, were done by the priests only, 
and two great evils thereby came about. First; 



chap, vij THE ARYAN NATIONS, 93 

people believed that the priests knew more about 
the unseen than other men, and so, leaving religion 
to them, gave up thinking ; ceased to use the 
greatest gift which made them men. How fright- 
fully this has kept the world back, we have the 
saddest proofs even to-day, in our forgetfulness 
that the voices of God are around us ; that 
His secrets are not with any one class of men, 
but with them that fear Him, with them that 
are true to what they feel to be highest and 
best, whoever they may be. Next; the belief 
that certain buildings are more sacred than 
others, and that one kind of work is holier than 
another, has caused people to think that God is 
more with the priest than He is with the peasant, 
and more likely to be present in a church than in 
a house or a shop. The Psalmist knew better 
than that, for he asked, ' Whither shall I go from 
Thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee from Thy 
presence ? ' And so did Jesus when he 
told the people that to the pure in heart 
there was some showing of God's blessed face, 
and that not on mountain or in city only, but 
everywhere He could be worshipped. The earth 



94 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

is a temple, and all honest work is service 
therein. 

Sacrifice was an important part of the Aryan 
religion. A rude altar of turf or stones was piled 
upon some high place under the open sky, and the 
wood laid upon it was kindled by rubbing two 
dried branches together. One chief offering to 
the gods was the fermented juice of the Soma or 
moon-plant, which, being a strong drink, gave a 
new excitement to those who took it, and was be- 
lieved to impart power to the gods. It was offered 
to them in ladles, or thrown into the fire. It was 
thought to work miracles, and afterwards became 
one of the chief gods among the Hindus. In a 
Vedic hymn the worshippers say — 

4 We've quaffed the Soma bright, 
And are immortal grown ; 
We've entered into light, 
And all the gods have known. 
What mortal now can harm, 
Or foeman vex us more ? 
Through thee, beyond alarm, 
Immortal God ! we soar.' 

(See also page 142). 

Other gifts, such as butter (produce of the 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 95 

valued cow), grains of barley, cakes, &c, were pre- 
sented, and at solemn seasons animals were offered, 
the highest sacrifice being that of the horse, which 
creature was a frequent victim among the Scandi- 
navians. Tacitus tells us that among the Teutons 
sacred white horses never ridden by men, were 
kept in groves, and fed at the public cost. 

The Veda gives an insight into the hymns and 
prayers used at these sacrifices, and the Vach, or 
\ Goddess of Speech/ who taught the people to 
worship in spirit as well as in form, is praised in 
words which are very like those about Wisdom in 
the 8th chapter of Proverbs : — 

f I uphold both the sun and the moon, the fir- 
mament and fire. I am queen and mistress of 
riches, I am wise. Listen then to me, for I speak 
words worthy of belief. "Whom I love I make 
holy and wise. ... I pervade heaven and earth. 
I bore the father on the head of this (universal 
mind), and my beginning is in the midst of the 
ocean ; therefore do I pervade all beings, and 
touch this heaven with my form. I breathe in 
all worlds ; I am above this heaven, beyond this 
earth ; and what is the great one, that am 1/ 



96 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

This brief sketch of Aryan religion, especially 
the early notions of virtue and divine power abiding 
in the Soma, shows us a truth which is every day 
becoming clearer; that the things which are 
thought to belong only to one religion are common 
to all religions. The Eoman Catholic priest who 
elevates the consecrated bread called the ' host ' 
(from Latin hostia, a victim), is after all but an 
imitator of the old Aryan worshipper who, when 
he offered the Soma, raised the wooden cup that 
held it. 

(e) AEYAN MYTHS. 

You know that there is found among every 
people what is called a mythology (from Greek 
muthos, a fable, and logos, a word), under w^hich 
name may be classed all legends and traditions, 
and also the fairy tales to which boys and girls 
listen so eagerly. There is common to myth 
and folk-lore the stories of the loves and quarrels 
of gods and goddesses, the feasts they ate, and the 
foes they slew ; of heroes fighting with monsters 
for the rescue of fair maidens from dark dungeons 
and enchanted castles, of love-sick princes crossing 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 97 

wide seas in quest of the princess whom they wish to 
marry, and doing many deeds of daring to win her ; 
of brave and cunning dwarfs that kill greedy, cruel 
and stupid giants ; of strange creatures that lived 
in forest, in stream and underneath the ground — 
in Northern lands, known as nixies or water- 
sprites ; as trolls or hill-dwarfs ; as golden-haired 
elves that come from Elf-home at moonlight to 
dance in fairy rings upon the grass and make the 
air gently tremble with the soft music of their 
magic harps ; in Southern lands, the naiades or 
water-nymphs, the satyrs and fauns and pigmies 
— and, all the world over, the beings too many 
to name, that dwell in wonder-land. Then there 
are the legends that people the air with the spirits 
of the dead, with sheeted ghosts, thirsty vampires, 
witches and the like ; that tell of strange powers 
for good or evil possessed by living and lifeless 
things, of men changed into bears and wolves and 
stones ; of maidens changed into swans ; of waters 
of life and death and forgetfulness ; of magic 
horns, lamps, cudgels, table-cloths and necklaces ; 
of flasks that fill the ocean and talismans that 
open hidden stores of gold and gems ; legends 



98 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. VI. 

accounting for the cross on the ass's back, the 
marks on the haddock, the bears stumpy tail, the 
robin's red breast, the wasp's narrow waist, the 
echoes among the hills, the saltness of the sea, the 
spots on the moon, and so on. We must also 
include as more or less out-growths of myth the 
great Epics (or poems describing the deeds of 
heroes) of the Aryan nations ; in Norseland the 
tales of the Volsungs ; in England, the tales of 
King Arthur and his Round Table Knights ; in 
Greece, the Iliad and Odyssey ; and the minor 
stories which are found among many peoples, such 
as the skill of Tell the archer, and the mistake of 
the prince who slew the faithful dog Gellert, that 
had saved his child from the wolf. Now, strange 
to tell, just as the languages of the English, Rus- 
sians, Hindus and other Aryan nations have 
come from one source, so also have many of 
their myth3, legends and fairy tales. It is worth 
your while to hear how this has been found out. 

Much that was passed by in former years as 
meaningless and unworthy of notice has in our 
day been looked at with care and found to be full 
of history and meaning. 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 99 

Thus it has been with nursery tales, which of 
all things one might think would be the least 
likely to throw any light upon the past, or to 
yield instruction as they yield amusement. For 
some years learned men have taken down these 
tales from the lips of old goodies, unlearned 
peasants, and servants in India, Germany, Russia, 
Scotland and elsewhere, and on putting them side 
by side, have traced a strong likeness running 
through the whole. Now we are sure that the 
old grannies in Northern Europe did not learn 
their tales from Hindu books or story-tellers, and 
the resemblance can be explained only by sup- 
posing that the Aryan tribes carried with them 
from their one Asian home a common stock of 
stories as well as a common speech and a common 
name for the Heaven-Father. 

What was the foundation of all these stories we 
shall presently see ; but it cost great labour to 
get at, because the older form had become over- 
laid, the gods of the early myths being the heroes 
of mock history, and these again the giants and 
knights of fireside tales. 

The question was asked if the mythologies of 



ioo THE AR YAN NA TIONS. [chap. vi. 

the ancients were merely absurd stories invented 
to please a low, bad taste, or stories which held 
within them a pure meaning, hidden, but not 
departed ? For if this better meaning could be 
found it might tell something of the purpose 
myths once served to those who framed them, and 
of the views they had of things. 

In looking at the Greek myths, it seemed 
unlikely that a people who have made the world 
more beautiful to all of us, whose sweet singers 
charm us still, and of whose wise teachers the 
wisest of our time gladly learn, should have been 
the sons of men who invented out of filthy minds 
the mass of coarse and horrid stories which make 
up so much of their mythology ; such as those 
telling of Kronos maiming his father and swallow- 
ing his own children ; of Tantalus roasting his 
son and giving the gods his flesh to eat ; and of 
OEdipus killing his father and becoming the 
husband of his own mother. 

The doubt led, as doubts always lead, to 
enquiry, and the enquiry brought out the truth 
that the older meaning of these tales had been 
forgotten by the later Greeks, the wisest among 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS, 101 

whom were shocked at such stories of the gods, 
one of them saying, ' If the gods do aught un- 
seemly, then they are not gods at all/ 

They could not trace, as we can, their birthplace, 
their language, and their legends to the old 
Aryan home, and accounted for these things in a 
proud and foolish way. They called every people 
around them barbarians, in mockery of the bar- 
bar of which their language seemed made up. 

The mode by which the meaning of the Greek 
myths has been found is this : The earliest 
forms of myth are contained in the Veda; and 
the older Sanskrit, in which it is written, has 
preserved the first forms of the words more than 
the later Sanskrit or any other Aryan language. 
Therefore Greek words, the meaning of which 
was wholly or partly hidden, but the kindred 
forms of which in Sanskrit were known, were 
compared with them, and then the meaning 
became clear. For example, in Greek legend, 
Athene is said to be the daughter of Zeus, having 
sprung from his forehead. 

Taking this by itself, its meaning is hard to find. 
But when, as we saw at page 88, the Greek Zeus 



102 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

is found to be the Sanskrit Dyaus, we know that 
something about the shy is meant. The Greek 
AtheriS is probably the Sanskrit Ahand, which 
means the dawn. A hymn in the Veda says of 
her : ' Ahana comes near to every house, she who 
makes every day to be known/ Therefore the 
Greek legend may be said to mean that the dawn 
springs from the forehead of the sky, or, as we 
should say in English, rises out of the east. 

Now, although such a myth as that of Athene, 
with very many others that could be told, are to 
us but sweet and pretty conceits, they were not so 
to the Aryans, who, as we have seen, believed 
all things which moved to have life ; sun, moon, 
star, and uprising, fleet-footed dawn a strong, 
grand life, and who spoke of them accordingly, 
meaning what they said, and not composing 
poetry for men to admire. Language is not 
the only proof of this ; for the accounts which 
travellers give concerning the nature - myths 
framed by modern savages, in which dead 
but moving things are called living persons, 
show that the mind of man worked then as it 
works now. And the notions which young 



CHAr. vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 103 

children often form about their toys aptly 
illustrate the mythic age through which every 
race passes. ' To a little child not only are all 
living creatures endowed with human intelligence, 
but everything is alive. In his world pussy takes 
rank with Pa and Ma in point of intelligence. He 
beats the chair against which he has knocked his 
head ; the fire that burns his finger is " naughty 
fire ; " and the stars that shine through his 
bedroom-window are eyes, like mammas or 
pussy's, only brighter.' 

And it is the same with man in a rude, 
untaught state, nor does he reach loftier ideas till 
a long time after his civilization has begun. 

How true all this is we can never deeply feel, 
because it is not possible for us to put ourselves 
in the place of man in the myth-making stage of 
his growth. If we could forget all that science 
has taught us and believe that the sun was alive, 
we too, as the dreadful night wore away and the 
light of the stars grew fainter, should look with 
blended hope and fear to the east, and then, 
seeing the light-rays creeping up followed by the 
sun, welcome him as our life and say of him many 



104 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

things, calling him eye of heaven, a face with 
streaming locks, a god drawn by brilliant horses, 
a golden bird that died in the flame and rose again 
from the ashes. We too should speak of him 
as loving the dawn (an idea which has given rise 
to many tender myths), and when he sank in the 
west, and the soft light floated over him, as soothed 
to sleep or to death by the kisses of his loved 
one. 

A careful study of the Aryan myths shows that 
they had for the larger part their birth in the 
ideas called forth by the changing scenery of the 
heavens in dawn and dusk, in sunrise and sunset, 
and the myriad shades and fleeting forms which 
lie between them ; the dawn being the source of 
the richest myths. Of course every myth and 
legend is not to be thus accounted for, because 
that which is human and personal takes shape 
and substance likewise. The mood of mind caused 
by things sad or joyful in the life of man ; the 
sense of right and wrong, and the knowledge that 
within us the battle between these two is being 
fought ; these, which are to those who feel deeply 
more real than even sunrises and sunsets, have 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 105 

Lad a large share in adding to the legends which 
make us creep closer to the light and move us 
now to laughter and now to tears. Then many 
events of history have been so misunderstood as to 
become mythical. Fable has been promoted into 
history ; history has been lowered into fable ; and 
history and fable have become mixed and gathered 
round great names, such as Cyrus, Charlemagne 
and far greater names than theirs. 

Prof. Max Muller shows how easily a myth 
might grow out of the word gloaming (or evening 
twilight). Supposing that the exact meaning had 
been forgotten and that a proverb had been pre- 
served in this form, ' The gloaming sings the sun 
to sleep,' an explanation would be needed. Nurses 
would tell their children that the gloaming was a 
good old woman who came every night to put the 
sun into his bed and who would be very angry if 
she found any little children still awake. The 
children would soon talk among themselves about 
Nurse Gloaming, and as they grew up would tell 
their children again of the same wonderful old 
nurse. It was in this and similar ways that in 
the childhood of the world many a story grew up 



106 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

which, adapted and decorated by a poet, became 
part and parcel of what we call the mythology 
of ancient nations. 

I must now tell you about one very important 
Aryan myth which has given rise to a group of 
legends, and even become part of some great re- 
ligions. All the Aryan nations, and also some 
other nations with whom they have had intercourse, 
have among their legends the story of a battle be- 
tween a hero and a monster. In each case the 
hero is the victor and sets free treasures which 
have been stolen and hidden by the m ouster, and 
so renders help to men. In Hindu myth it is the 
combat between Indra and the dragon Vritra ; 
among the Romans it became the fight between 
Hercules and the three-headed monster Cacus ; 
with the Greeks, among other like tales, it was 
the battle between Apollo and the terrible snake 
Python ; in old Norse legend, between Sigurd and 
the coiled dragon Fafnir ; and in Christian myth 
between St George and the Dragon. "We shall see 
what grave form the battle took in the old 
Persian religion and how the Satan of later Jewish 
belief was borrowed therefrom. 



chap. VI.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 107 

Let us now trace the birth and growth of this 
myth. Since the chief wealth of the Aryans was 
in their cattle, each man would do his utmost to 
increase the number of his flocks and herds. The 
cow was the creature most prized, for her milk fed 
his household and every calf that was born made him 
richer. She was to him what the camel is to the 
Arab and the buffalo to the Red Indian. And as 
she was the sign of fruitfulness and welcome gifts, 
so the bull was the sign of strength. The Aryan's 
enemy was he who stole the cattle, while he who 
saved them from the robber's clutch was the true 
friend. 

We have seen where the Aryan looked for the 
dwelling-place of his gods. As he, in whom was 
born that same sense of wonder which his savage 
forefathers had, and which we his children have, 
lifted his eyes to the heaven whose rains watered 
the ground he tilled and whose sun ripened his 
fruits, he saw the clouds moving in their great 
majesty, filled through and through with the light 
or hiding it within their dark caverns. Nothing 
strikes man everywhere so much as the struggle 
between light and darkness ; between the light- 



108 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

ning piercing the clouds and letting loose the rain 
and the slow march of the black powers that hold 
the rain within their grasp ; between the sun's 
rays and the cloud or fog they strive to rend 
asunder. 

The heaven was to the Aryan a great plain over 
which roamed bulls and cows, for such the clouds 
seemed to him to be. Just as the cow yielded 
him milk, so those cows of heaven dropped upon 
the earth rain and dew, heaven s milk. The lord 
of the plain was the sun, he was the strong bull of 
heaven. Nor were these the only animals that 
wandered across the wide fields above, for endless 
as are the forms and shades of colour of the clouds 
so endless were the creatures they were thought to 
be. The fancy of the myth-maker worked with 
the freedom with which we in sitting before a fire 
may picture any number of queer shapes and faces 
in the red-hot coals. 

The Aryan thought that the dark clouds in the 
sky were the dwelling-place of a wicked monster 
who had stolen the cows and shut them up in the 
caverns of the piled-up mountains (the Sanskrit 
word parvata means both cloud and mountain) 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 109 

and who was drinking up the water needed by the 
thirsty earth and hiding the treasures of light and 
heat from men. 

Unless the lord of the plains, the bull of bulls, 
killed this huge black thief (called by different 
names in the Veda; Vritra, serpent, wolf, black one, 
&c), the cows could not be freed and brought back 
to their pasture. So with the storm-gods riding 
at his side, Indra (the name given him in the 
Veda) comes bellowing, the fire (that is, the sun 
rays or lightning) flashing from him, his horns (or 
thunderbolts) tossing in anger. He slays the 
monster, cleaves the rocks asunder, and forth- 
with the light breaks out or the pent waters 
are loosed and pour down upon the parched 
land. 

Thus I hope is made clear to you from whence 
the legends of fights between heroes and monsters 
have come. It is the victory of light over dark- 
ness, but the battle took a more serious shape 
than that in later ages. The struggle that man 
saw between the powers of nature was but child's 
play compared to the deadly conflict between the 
powers of good and evil as they fought for the 



no THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

mastery over all things ; but more of this when we 
have done with the myths. 

The tales of princesses and ladies kept in dark 
prisons, from which some bold and gallant knight 
frees them, are later forms of the myths of the 
sun released from the darkness of the night ; of 
the spring escaped from the chains in which winter 
had bound him ; and of the waters delivered from 
their cloud-prisons. 

This book is only a key to unlock the door to 
a gallery of wonders where you will find more 
learned and sure guides than he who now points 
the way. A mere list of what is to be seen 
therein would fill a very large book, and I must 
be content to end this chapter with a few proofs 
of the pure meaning hidden in Greek and other 
myths and of some curious likenesses between 
certain historic tales and nursery legends of East 
and "West. 

1. It is said of Kronos (which is a Greek name 
only) who was a son of Ouranos, with whom the 
race of gods began, that he swallowed his first 
five children soon after the birth of each. 

Kronos means time and Ouranos the heaven. 



chap. vi. ] THE AR YAN NA TIONS. 1 1 1 

Ouranos is the same as the sky-god Varuna 
invoked in the Veda, whose name comes from a 
root var, to veil, heaven being spread like a veil 
over the earth. 

The Greek myth simply means that Time 
swallows up the days which spring from it. 
The German story of the Wolf and the Seven 
Kids is something like it. t The wolf swallowed 
all the kids except the youngest, which was 
hidden in the clock-case, the meaning being that 
Night swallows up the days of the week, but 
cannot eat the youngest because it is hidden, as 
to-day is, in the clock-case.' 

Tantalus (from which comes our word tantalise, 
to torment) was said to be king of Lydia, and 
when Zeus and all the gods came down to a feast 
which he gave them, he killed his own son and 
set the roasted flesh before them, to see whether 
they knew all things that take place. They 
knew what he had done and brought back the 
child to life, sending Tantalus to Tartarus, where 
all are banished who sin against the gods. There 
he was made to stand up to his chin in water, 
which sank lower whenever he tried to drink it : 



H2 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

while branches of fruit hung over his head, but 
waved away each time that he sought to grasp 
them. The meaning is that the fierce sun kills 
the fruits of the earth, while the punishment 
means that if he glares too fiercely the water 
courses flee from him and the fruits wither away. 

SaranyiX is one of the names in Sanskrit for 
the dawn, and it explains the name Erinyes given 
to the Greek furies or avenging gods. For as the 
morning brings to light the evil deeds done in the 
darkness, so the Erinyes, winged monsters with 
serpent locks and eyes with tears of blood, found 
out, and then punished, the crimes of men. 

Among the many names for the sun in the 
Veda, he is called the golden-handed, from the 
golden rays shooting like fingers from him. In 
the course of time a story grew up that at a sacri- 
fice he had cut off his hand and that the priests 
made a golden one in its stead. He was also 
called a frog when at rising or setting he seemed 
to be squatting on the water. Now in one of the 
West Highland tales there is a story of a frog who 
wishes to marry a princess, and who, when the 
princess consents to become his wife, is changed 



chap, vi.] THE AR YAN NA TIONS. 1 1 3 

into a handsome man. The old meaning of this 
tale comes out in a Sanskrit story of Bheki the 
frog. She was a beautiful girl and one day when 
sitting near a well, a king saw her and asked her 
to be his wife. She consented on his promising 
never to show her a drop of water. One day 
being faint she asked the king for water; the 
king forgot his promise, brought her water and 
she vanished. Both stories grew out of a saying 
about the sun, such as that Bheki the sun will 
die at the sight of water, as we should say that 
the sun will set when it approaches the water 
from which it rose in the morning. 

From these few examples you will more easily 
learn how the uncouth features of mythology have 
been caused by the Aryan tribes, when they be- 
came scattered, forgetting the first meaning of the 
words which they used when together. In looking at 
the Greek, Norse, German and other myths by the 
light of the Veda, we find the full, fresh thoughts 
of the mind of man when there was no bounds to 
his beliefs and fancies. Nature was the great 
storehouse from which he drew ; the sunlight ; 
the fresh morning air ; the floating clouds, wind- 



H4 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

driven ; the spear-tipped lightning and the heaven- 
sent rain. 

2. And now, as showing how these myths have 
actually forced their way into history and passed 
without question for a long time, just as bad 
coins will now and then pass among good ones, 
let me say a few words about William Tell. 

The story is well known how in the 1307th 
year after Christ the cruel Gessler set a hat upon 
a pole as a symbol of the ruling power, and ordered 
everyone who passed by to bow before it. A moun- 
taineer named Tell refused to obey the order and was 
at once brought before Gessler. As Tell was known 
to be an expert archer, he was sentenced by way 
of punishment to shoot an apple off the head of 
his own son. The apple was placed on the boy's 
head and the father bent his bow ; the arrow sped 
and went through the apple. Gessler saw that 
Tell before shooting had stuck another arrow in 
his belt and asked the reason. Tell replied : ' To 
shoot you, tyrant, had I slain my child/ Now 
although the crossbow which Tell is said to have 
used is shown at Zurich, the event never took 
place ! One poor man was condemned to be 



chap. vi. ] THE AR YAN NA TIONS. 1 1 5 

burnt alive for daring to question the story, but 
the poor man was right. The story is told not 
only in Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, 
Russia, Persia, and perhaps India, but is common 
to the Turks and Mongolians, 'while a legend of 
the wild Samoyedes, who never heard of Tell or saw 
a book in their lives, relates it, chapter and verse, 
of one of their marksmen.' In its English form 
it occurs in the ballad of William of Cloudeslee. 
The bold archer says : 

' 1 have a sonne seven years old ; 
Hee is to me full deere ; 
I will tye him to a stake — 
All shall see him that bee here — 
And lay an apple upon his head, 
And goe six paces him froe, 
And I myself with a broad arrowe 
Shall cleave the apple in towe. ? 

The story is an old Aryan sun-myth. Tell is 
the sun-god whose arrows (light-rays) never miss 
their mark, and likewise kill their foes. 

There is another old tale over which I have 
cried as a boy. You have heard how the faithful 
dog Gellert killed the wolf which had come to de- 
stroy Llewellyns child, and how, when the prince 



1 1 6 THE AR YAN NA TIONS. [ch ap . vi. 

came home, and found the cradle empty, and the 
dogs mouth smeared with blood, he quickly slew 
the brave creature, and then found the child 
safe, and the wolf dead beside it. At Beddgelert 
in North Wales, you may see the dogs grave 
neatly railed round ! 

Now this story occurs in all sorts of forms in 
the folk-lore of nearly every Aryan people, and 
is found in China and Egypt. In India a black 
snake takes the place of the wolf, and the ichneu- 
mon that of the dog, while in Egypt the story 
says that a cook nearly killed a "Wali for smashing 
a pot full of herbs, and then discovered that 
amongst the herbs there lurked a poisonous 
snake. 

It is safe to conclude that marvellous things 
which are said to have happened in so many 
places never happened anywhere. 

But if we must give up these stories as legends, 
it is not all loss, since it tends to bring the story- 
tellers closer together, and to show how, under 
different skins, the same hearts are beating, and 
how the same welcome is given in every age to 
the tales of brave, of loving, and of faithful deeds 



chap. vi. ] THE AR YAN NA T10NS. 1 1 7 

which men and women have wrought in this w T orld 
of ours, and which make the legends possible. 

3. But I must forbear, because I am sure you 
will like to hear a little about some tales that 
have sometimes dried your tears, and sometimes 
made you cry. 

Let us see whether Cinderella is a British- 
born lady in disguise, or whether she came 
from some very old nursery in the East. She 
must have come therefrom, for we find the frame- 
work of the story in the Veda, where Cinderella is 
a claivn-maiclen ! 

The aurora in her flight leaves no footsteps 
behind her, but the prince Mitra (one of the Vedic 
names for the sun), while following the beautiful 
young girl, finds a slipper which shows her foot- 
step and the size of her foot, so small that no 
other woman has a foot like it. This sun-myth 
which tells of a lost slipper, and of a prince who 
tries to find the foot to which it belongs, and who 
cannot overtake the chariot in which the maiden rides, 
is the source of the dear old tale. Cinderella, as you 
will remember, was beautiful only when in the 
ball-room, or near the shining light. This means 



n8 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

that the aurora is bright only when the sun is 
near, when he is away, her dress is of sombre 
colour — she is a Cinderella,. The Greek form of 
the tale says that whilst Rhodope was bathing, an 
eagle snatched one of her slippers from her maid 
and carried it to the King of Egypt, as he sat on 
his judgment seat at Memphis. The king fell in 
love with the foot to which the slipper belonged, 
and gave orders that its owner should be searched 
for, and when Rhodope was found, the king 
married her. 

In the Hindu tale a Rajah has an only daugh- 
ter who was born with a golden necklace which 
contained her soul, and the father was warned 
that if the necklace were taken off and worn by 
another, the princess would die. One birthday 
he gave her a pair of golden and jewelled slippers 
which she wore whenever she went out ; and one 
day, as she was picking flowers upon a mountain, 
a slipper came off and fell down the steep side 
into the forest below. It was searched for in 
vain ; but not long after, a prince who was hunt- 
ing found it and took it to his mother, who, 
judging how fair and highborn the owner must 



ch ap . vi. ] THE AR YAN NA TIONS. 1 1 9 

be, advised him to seek for her and make her his 
wife. He made public the finding of the slipper 
throughout the kingdom, but no one claimed it, 
and he had wellnigh despaired when some 
travellers from the Rajah's country heard that the 
missing slipper was in the hands of the prince, to 
whom they made known its owners name. He 
straightway repaired to the Rajah's palace, and 
showing him the slipper, asked for the hand of 
the princess, who became his wife. After her 
marriage a jealous woman stole the necklace 
while she was sleeping, and, to her husband's deep 
grief, her body was carried to a tomb. But it 
did not decay, nor did the bloom of life leave her 
sweet face, so that the prince was glad to visit 
her tomb ; and one day the secret whereby her 
soul could be restored was revealed to him. 
He recovered the necklace, placed it round her 
neck, and with joy brought her back to his 
palace. 

The like framework of a slipper for whose 
pretty wearer a search is made and who becomes 
the finder's wife, occurs in the Serbian tale of 
' Papalluga ; ' in the German tale of t Aschen- 



120 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [CHAP. VI. 

puttel ;' in the fable of La Fontaine about the 

'Milkmaid and her Pail;' and other variants of 
the story, whose birthplace, as we have seen, was 

in Central Asia. 'Beauty and the Beast' is also 
found in Hindu, Greek, Norse and other myth. 

In the Greek story, Psycho is married to Cupid, 
who carries her to a secluded garden, where she 
sees him at night only. Her jealous sisters tell 
her that she is wedded to a loathly monster; and 
wishful to know the truth, she draws near to him 
with a lamp and finds him the loveliest of the 
gods. But a drop of hot oil fell on him, and ho 
awoke to blame her and vanish. After hard toil 
and weary search she found him, and was re- 
united to him for ever. In the German tale, the 
youngest of three daughters is married to a prince 
who is a hideous lion by day, and who tells her 
that he must never see the light. One day a 
sun-ray falls upon him through the chink of a 
door, and he is at once changed into a dove and 
dies away. His bride seeks him, and, aided by 
the sun, the moon and the north wind, frees him 
from the spell he is under, and lives with him 
' happily ever after/ In the Gaelic tale the bus- 



CHAP, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 121 

band is a dog in the daytime ; while in the 
Hindu tale it is a princess who is disguised in 
the skin of a withered old woman, which she 
takes off before dawn, but puts on again before 

the day breaks. 

In all these there arc common features, varied 
in detail by the story-teller's art and by the 
nature of the country and people where each lias 
found a home. 

Stories collected from very distant parts abound 
in which the place where some giant or magician 
keeps his 'soul ' or 'heart' or 'strength' is found 
out by the wily arts of a woman, who thereby 
has revenge for evil done to her or to her family. 
In the Norse tale of the 'Giant who had no 
Heart in his Body/ the monster lias turned six- 
princes with their wives into stone, whereupon 
the seventh brother seeks to take vengeance on 
him. On his way he succours a raven, a salmon 
and a wolf, for which kind act each creature 
renders him service. The wolf carries him to the 
giant's castle, where the seventh princess is con- 
fined, who promises to find out where the giant 
keeps his heart. He more than once refuses to 



122 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vt. 

tell her, or tells her falsely, but at last yields, as 
Samson yielded to Delilah. He says, ' Far, far 
away in a lake lies an island ; on that island 
stands a church ; in that church is a well ; in 
that well swims a duck ; in that duck there is an 
egg ; and in that egg there lies my heart, you 
darling.' The princess tells this to the prince, 
who ' rides on the wolfs back to the island ; the 
raven flies to the top of the steeple and gets the 
church-keys ; the salmon dives to the bottom of 
the well and brings up the egg from the place 
where the duck had dropped it.' As soon as the 
prince has the egg, he squeezes it, when the 
giant begs for his life, which the prince promises, 
on condition that he brings back to life the six 
brothers and their wives. But as soon as this is 
done, the prince breaks his word, squeezes the 
egg in two, and the giant dies. 

The Hindu tale of ' Punchkin ' is very like 
this. A magician turns into stone all the daugh- 
ters of a Kajah, with their husbands, but saves 
the youngest daughter, whom he wishes to marry. 
She has left a son at home, w^ho goes in search of 
his mother; and finding her in the magicians 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 123 

tower, persuades her to discover the secret place 
where the tyrant keeps his heart. The ogre tells 
her that in the middle of the jungle there is a 
circle of palm-trees, and in the centre of the circle 
six jars full of water, below which is a little 
parrot in a cage ; and if the parrot is killed, he 
too will die. The prince goes to the place, which 
is kept by dragons ; but an eagle whom he has 
helped carries him to the water-jars, which he 
upsets, and then seizes the parrot. He frightens 
the magician into restoring his victims to life, and 
then pulls the bird to pieces. ' As the wings 
and legs come away, so tumble off the arms and 
legs of the magician ; and finally, as the prince 
wrings the bird's neck, Punchkin twists his own 
head round and dies.' In the Arabian story, 'the 
Jinn's soul is enclosed in the body of a sparrow, 
which is imprisoned in a box placed in other 
boxes put in chests contained in a marble coffer, 
which is sunk in the ocean that surrounds the 
world.' The coffer is raised by the aid of a seal- 
ring, the sparrow is taken out and strangled, 
whereupon the Jinn's body becomes a heap of 
ashes and the hero escapes with the maiden. 



i2 4 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

Space quite forbids my quoting more tales of the 
same kind, which are found in Bohemian, Gaelic, 
Serbian, and other folk-lore, not forgetting, what 
is more remarkable than all, that like features 
exist in an Egyptian tale which is more than 
three thousand years old. 

In the Jataka, a very ancient collection of. 
Buddhist fables which, professing to have been told 
by Buddha, narrate his exploits in the 550 births 
through which he passed before attaining Buddha- 
hood, there are found 'not a few of the tales 
which pass under the name of " iEsop's Fables/' 
and of the * stories which are like those in other 
Western folk-lore. 

In one of these a holy man, who has attained 
to a seat in the world of spirits, aids a sick 
brother by the gift of a magic hatchet, which at 
bidding brings fuel and makes a fire, and of a 
magic bowl, whose contents when emptied fill a 
mighty river ; which reminds us of the magic 
tools in Norse tales ; the scissors that cut out silk 
and satin from the air ; the axe that cut the oak 
which grew bigger at the stroke of every other axe ; 
and the magic salt wherewith the prince, when he 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 125 

frees the princess, makes a great mountain 
between them and the giant who pursues them. 
In the Buddhist fables of the ungrateful beast 
from whose throat the crane removes a bone that 
stuck there ; and of the frightened ass who, 
clothed in a lion's skin, brays like an ass, we are 
surprised to find ourselves face to face with fami- 
liar tales, part of a vast stock which come to us 
from far Japan to bleak Iceland, comprising the 
beast-fables of the world. 

In iEsop we read of the fox who will not go 
into the lion s den, because he sees only the imprint 
of feet going in. In a Hottentot tale it is said 
that the lion was ill, and that all the beasts went to 
visit him except the jackal, who would not go, be- 
cause the footsteps of those who went to see the 
lion did not turn back. So in a version of the 
famous old tale of 'Reynard the Fox,' the cock 
gets his head out of Reynard's mouth by making 
him answer the farmer; while in the Hottentot 
tale, the cock makes the jackal say his prayers, 
and when the befooled beast folds his hands and 
shuts his eyes, the clever bird flies away. 

Then there are other legends and tales which, 



126 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

like the myths, are born of man's wondering out- 
look on nature, such as Little Red Riding Hood, 
who in the German story is cut out of the sleep- 
ing wolf by a hunter ; Tom Thumb, who was 
swallowed by the cow, and came out unhurt ; 
Saktidern, swallowed by the fish and cut out again ; 
Jonah, swallowed by a sea-monster which casts 
him ashore unharmed ; all of which are legends 
telling of the night devouring the sun. 

But enough of illustration has been given to 
show how like to one another are many of the fairy 
tales, legends and myths of the Indo-European 
races, 45, and I must end this long chapter with a 
brief account of the source from whence have 
come the stories of the ' House that Jack built/ 
and of the ' Old Woman who couldn't get her Pig 
over the Stile.' There is a poem at the end of 
the book of Passover services used by the Jews, 
which some among them regard as a parable of 
the past and future of the Holy Land. It con- 
tains ten verses, each ending with the refrain, ' a 
kid, a kid,' and it begins 

' A kid, a kid my father bought 
For two pieces of money ; ' 

* See Note E. 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 127 

and after telling how a cat came and ate the kid, 
and a dog came and bit the cat, and a staff came 
and beat the dog, and so on, it concludes thus : 

' Then came the Holy One, blessed be He ! 
And killed the Angel of Death, 
That killed the butcher, 
That slew the ox, 
That drank the water, 
That quenched the fire, 
That burned the staff, 
That beat the dog. 
That bit the cat, 
That ate the kid 
That ray father bought 
For two pieces of money : 

A kid, a kid.' 

We now bid farewell to the myths and reach 
a place where the ground is firmer beneath us, 
where the sky is as full of theme for wonder as 
it was to the old Aryans. We do not see in 
the sun a slayer of dragons or a weary traveller ; 
in the lightning a fiery serpent ; in the clouds 
cows with swelling udders to be milked by 
the wind-god ; we see above us the stately, well- 
ordered march of sun, moon, star and cloud at the 
command of Him who 'bringeth out their host 



128 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

by number ; He calleth them all by names by the 
greatness of His might, for that He is strong in 
power/ and we know that ' these are parts of 
His ways ; but how little a portion is heard of 
Him ! the thunder of His power who can under- 
stand ? ' 

(J.) THE SEPARATION OF THE ARYAN TKIBE& 

At last the time arrived when the mother- 
country had become too narrow for the growing 
numbers or when envious hordes burst in upon 
them, and when some of the children had to leave 
in search of food and work elsewhere. 

It was an eventful period when they set forth 
to clear a path through the forests and ford the 
rivers and fight the foes that lay between them 
and the glorious future into which they were 
entering. They bore weapons upon their 
shoulders, but the mightiest weapon which they 
carried was unseen, even the power which made 
them men, and through which they or their children 
would awaken and use the great forces that had 
long laid safe in Nature's keeping, and also give 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 129 

to the lands over which they spread themselves 
religion, law and liberty, science, art and song. 

There is a noble and stirring description in 
Charles Kingsley's ' Alton Locke ' of the departure 
of a tribe from its old home, which may fitly be 
quoted here. He speaks of the l tall, bare-limbed 
men, with stone axes on their shoulders and horn 
bows at their backs ; ' ' herds of gray cattle, 
guarded by huge lop-eared mastiffs;' e shaggy 
white horses, heavy-homed sheep, and silky goats/ 
and tells of the path they took : ' Westward, 
through the boundless steppes, whither or 
why we knew not ; but that the All-Father had 
sent us forth. And behind us the rosy snow- 
peaks died into ghastly gray, lower and lower, as 
every evening came ; and before us the plains 
spread infinite, with gleaming salt-lakes, and ever 
fresh tribes of gaudy flowers. Behind us dark 
lines of living beings streamed down the mountain 
slopes ; around us dark lines crawled along the 
plains — all westward, westward ever. . . . West- 
ward ever, who could stand against us ? We met 
the wild asses on the steppe, and tamed them, 
and made them our slaves. We slew the bison 



130 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

herds, and swam broad rivers on their skins. The 
Python snake lay across our path ; the wolves and 
wild dogs snarled at us out of their coverts ; we 
slew them and went on. The forest rose in black 
tangled barriers ; we hewed our way through them 
and went on. Strange giant tribes met us, and 
eagle-visaged hordes, fierce and foolish ; we smote 
them hip and thigh, and went on, westward ever/ 
If you look at a map of Asia you will see that 
the country where the eastern tribes dwelt is 
hemmed in by lofty mountains, while the region 
where the other tribes dwelt lies open to the west. 
Since those to the east could not enlarge their 
borders in that quarter, they pushed the others 
towards the land that stretched between them and 
Europe, which caused the Celtic tribes, who lived 
most to the west and whose descendants are found 
in the most westerly parts of Europe, to be the 
first to leave. These pioneers slowly overspread 
the face of Europe, and traces of the paths which 
they took remain in the Celtic names of places 
where ^they settled, and especially of rivers on 
whose banks they dwelt. They have ever been a 
restless people, but had they been disposed to 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 131 

settle they would have found it no easy task. 
The races who were already in possession of the 
soil did not yield without a struggle, while long 
afterwards there poured in from the east the other 
Aryan emigrants to Europe. So the Celts had at 
last a hard time of it, and were driven onwards 
by the Germans and Slavonians, who seem to have 
travelled by a path north of the Caspian Sea, and 
by the common forefathers of the Greeks and 
Romans, who took a more southerly road, which 
brought them to the lands made famous by their 
sons. 

Thus the old home was slowly cleared of most 
of its former inmates, and those who stayed 
behind, the ancestors of the Medes and Persians 
and Hindus, found wider breathing space, and 
came down from the higher valleys in the east to 
the more fertile parts. 

Thus is explained the movements of the two 
branches of the Aryan family of mankind. 

With this brief account we must now take 
leave of the tribes that went to Europe and follow 
the fortunes of those who remained together for a 
time. Their separation will lead me to speak of 



132 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

the growth of Hinduism or Brahmanism out of the 
old Aryan faith ; of the rise of Zoroastrianism, the 
ancient religion of Persia ; and of Buddhism. 

After an account of these three great Aryan 
religions, we will cast a brief glance at the 
religions of China and then say somewhat of the 
Semitic race, among whom Judaism and Moham- 
madanism had their birth. 

We shall thus have taken a rough survey of 
most of the living religions of the world, and I 
hope gained some clearer knowledge of the beliefs 
of hundreds of millions of our fellow-creatures. 

Language, the same witness of which so large 
a use has been made already, is called in to prove 
that the Eastern Aryans dwelt together for some 
time, united by nearly the same speech, by wor- 
ship of the same gods, and observance of the same 
rites of their old religion. There are, however, 
traditions of a state of turmoil and of struggles 
with the restless tribes around them, who doubt- 
less coveted the richer land where the Aryans had 
settled ; still more of quarrels among themselves 
which gave rise to bitter hatred and then to 



chap, vi.] THE ARYAN NATIONS. 133 

separation, one branch moving southwards into 
India. In the Zend-Avesta clear mention is made 
of this dispute, and although we do not know all 
the causes which led thereto, we know that 
religion had much, perhaps most, to do with it. 

We saw that the old Aryan faith was an almost 
pure nature-religion, a worship of the powers 
which were seen in action around. Out of this 
there was slowly growing, as the result of man's 
thought about things and comparison of them 
with one another, a sense that underneath the 
many there was the one, and thus he was being 
led to the highest of all beliefs, that ' there is one 
God and none other but He.' 

Among the men whom God sends but rarely, 
charged with this message of His unity, none stand 
out in purer outline than Zarathustra (commonly 
spelt, according to the Greek, Zoroaster). To him 
was given the great work of reforming, as he said, 
the faith of his country, and of founding a reli- 
gion which was the grandest of all the Aryan 
creeds. 

He met with bitter opposition from those who 
clung to the older and grosser faith, but these 



134 THE ARYAN NATIONS. [chap. vi. 

were worsted in the struggle ; and at last the 
separation was complete. The tribes who would 
not accept the new religion had, there is reason 
for thinking, already crossed the passes of the 
high mountain-range named the Hindu Kush, and 
after settling in the Punjab, slowly pushed their 
way along the valley of the Ganges, spreading 
themselves in the course of centuries over India. 

India is a land of mixed races. There are found 
among her tangled forests and rugged hills rem- 
nants of a savage people whose forefathers were 
probably the earliest dwellers, makers of the rough 
stone weapons found in various parts. These were 
subdued by invaders from the north-west, who 
were of a race allied to the Finns, Lapps, Mongols, 
&c, a race which seems to have covered large 
tracts of country, and to have laid the foundation 
upon which both the Aryan and Semitic families 
built their higher culture. They were far above 
the wild creatures whom they displaced and there- 
fore no mean foes for the Aryans to meet. The 
many huge erections of stones, in the form of 
circles, tables, &c, which India contains and 
which are older than the rock-cut temples of 



chap. VI.] THE ARYAN NATIONS, 135 

the Buddhists, are their handiwork. But they 
had to yield before the greater force and skill of 
the Aryans, and when caste was established, to 
take their place in the lowest class ; their language, 
religion and customs being more or less altered. 

Up to the time of the entrance of the Aryans 
into India scarcely a date is at hand to help us, 
neither does history become much clearer after- 
wards, since the Hindus have been strangely care- 
less in such a matter ; unlike the Egyptians, who 
put down the time when the smallest events of 
daily life took place. 

We will now pass on to some account of the 
Vedic faith and the religion which sprang there • 
from. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ANCIENT AND MODERN HINDU RELIGIONS. 

The religion known as Brahmanism or Hinduism 
includes at this day the many Hindu sects who 
differ very much from one another, each having 
its own form of belief and worship, but all rever- 
ing the Vedas as the inspired word of God, and 
numbering together about 120 millions of man- 
kind, or one-tenth of the human race. Some, 
however, state their number at 150 millions. 
Unlike the religions founded by Christ, Zoroaster, 
and Mohammad, the history of Brahmanism does 
not gather round a person. A lifetime would not 
compass the study of its sacred books, and it is a 
religion very hard to explain, indeed we know far 
less about it than we know about the old Aryan 
religion of which it is the corrupt offspring. It is 
like a mass of shapely and shapeless things hud- 
dled together, which no manner of art could ar- 
range into a well-set whole. It is rich with the 



chap, vii.] THE HINDU RELIGIONS. 137 

profoundest and the saddest thought of a deeply- 
religious people, but teaching that it should be 
the end of every life to shut its ears to the call of 
duty, to be unmoved by pleasure or by pain, and 
to sit down to dreamy thinking, it has caused the 
Hindus to run into the grossest and most loath- 
some superstitions, and to obey the most foolish, 
priest-made rules about food and cleansing and 
such like things. 

This must be the case with every religion which 
strives to dry up the passions and emotions of 
men, instead of turning them into channels where 
they may flow to benefit and bless others. 

In tracing the history of Brahmanism, we must 
begin with some account of the religion of the 
Aryan Hindus, of which a knowledge is obtained 
from the Vedas. 

The discovery of these ancient scriptures has 
been an immense gain, for without them we 
should have remained ignorant of the causes which 
led to the founding of Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, 
as well as of the nature of the old Aryan religion 
and from which the Vedic religion differs but little. 



138 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

That the narrative may flow on without too 
many breaks, I have removed to Note F at the 
end of this book, a list of the names and con- 
tents of the Hindu sacred writings, which should 
be read as a help to understanding this chapter. 

Veda means knowledge, science, and is a word 
kindred to our English wisdom, to wit, and the 
many like words. Although it is used in a plural 
form to include four collections of hymns, there is 
but one true, ancient Veda, called the Rig- Veda, 
and from that our account of the old Hindu faith 
will be drawn. 

It contains the hymns in which the Aryans 
who first entered India, praised their gods, and 
the oldest of such hymns are believed to have 
been composed 2400 years before Christ, or above 
4200 years ago. They exceed 1000 in number, 
and are of various lengths, from one to more than 
fifty verses or ric, meaning praise, hence the 
name Rig -Veda, or Veda of praise. Their 
authors are called Rishis, which means seer or 
sage. 

Some 600 years before Christ every word, 
every verse and every syllable was counted, and 



chap, vi r. ] HIND U RELIGIONS. 1 39 

the number agrees with existing copies as nearly 
as one could expect. The Brahmans have the 
holiest veneration for the four Vedas, and believe 
them to be so entirely the work of God as to 
have existed in His mind before time began. 
They make a great difference between these 
writings and all the others, which they call Smriti, 
or tradition, or that which is handed down from 
ancient teachers by one age after another; while 
the Vedas and Brahmanas are Sritti, or hearing, 
revelation, or that which comes direct from God. 

The gods chiefly addressed in the Rig- Veda are 
Agni, fire; Prithivi, the earth; Maruts, the storm; 
Ushas, &c, the dawn; Mitra, Surya, &c., the sun; 
Varuna, the all-surrounder ; Indra, the sky ; and 
Soma, a name given at a later period to the moon. 
Vishnu, who afterwards became a leading god in 
the Hindu Trimurti, or Trinity, is also a name for 
the sun in the Veda. 

As stated at page 87, the Aryan did not place 
the earth in the highest rank ; she was only 
partly divine. It was not so, however, with fire, 
that thing of mystery and shapeless power, a mer- 
ciless master, a helpful servant, at whose worship 



140 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vn. 

none can be amazed. Agni, god of fire (akin to 
Latin ignis, whence our word ignite, to set on 
fire), has more hymns addressed to him than any- 
other god. He it is who lives among men, who 
is the messenger between earth and heaven, the 
sole guarding and guiding power left to shelter 
men and dispel the gloom when the sun has set. 
His wonderful birth from two pieces of wood 
rubbed together is sung in glowing language, the 
ten fingers of the kindler are ten virgins who bring 
him into being; the two pieces of wood are his father 
and mother. Because the butter when thrown 
into the flame makes it mount higher and burn 
brighter, it was believed to be the gift Agni loved 
best, and as the flame rose upwards it was believed 
to carry to heaven the gifts heaped upon it. This 
is one of many hymns to him : 

'Agni, accept this log which I offer to thee, accept this my 
service ; listen well to these my songs. 

1 With this log, Agni, may we worship thee, thou son of 
strength, conqueror of horses! and with this hymn, thou 
high-born ! 

4 May we thy servants serve thee with songs, granter of 
riches, thou who lovest songs and delightest in riches. 

' Thou lord of wealth and giver of wealth, be thou wise and 
powerful ; drive away from us the enemies ! 



chap, vii.] HINDU RELIGIONS, 141 

'He gives us rain from heaven, he gives us inviolable 
strength, he gives us food a thousandfold. 

' Youngest of the gods, their messenger, their invoker, most 
deserving of worship, come, at our praise, to him who wor- 
ships thee and longs for thy help. 

4 For thou, sage, goest wisely between these two creations 
(heaven and earth, gods and men), like a friendly messenger 
between two hamlets. 

1 Thou art wise, and thou hast been pleased ; perform thou, 
intelligent Agni, the sacrifice without interruption, sit down on 
this sacred grass ! ' 

In our account of the religion of Zoroaster, we 
shall see what awe his followers felt towards fire, 
as the nearest emblem of the divine. 

Among the gods of the air, we find hymns in 
the Veda to the Maruts and others, but it is Indra 
who receives highest praise. Dyaus, as we have 
already seen, was one of the names common 
among the undivided Aryans, but among the 
Hindu tribes his place was taken by Indra. 
Indra rose from Dyaus, the sky, who was his 
father, and from Prithivf, the earth, where she and 
sky met, therefore Prithivi was his mother. This 
Vedic myth of Indra as their son is kept in mind 
at Brahman marriages, when the bridegroom says 



142 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

to the bride, ' I am the sky, thou art the earth, 
come let us marry.' It is Indra, you will remem- 
ber, who slays the demon Vritra, and who is 
refreshed for his mighty deed by drinking three 
lakes of soma, the water of strength. 

Soma (see p. 94) means ' extract/ and the 
plant from which it is obtained is akin to the 
common milkweed. The Aryans no sooner found 
out the strange power in the juice to excite and 
produce frenzy, than they believed it to be divine, 
since it seemed to give a godlike strength. It 
was raised to the rank of a god, and called king of 
heaven and earth, conqueror of all. The hymns 
to Soma occupy an entire book of the Veda : 
one of the most beautiful is quoted at page 111 
of the 'Childhood of the World/ and therefore 
need not be repeated here. 

Indra is praised thus in the Rig- Veda : 

4 He who as soon as born is the first of the deities, who has 
done honour to the gods by his deeds ; he at whose might 
heaven and earth are alarmed and who is known by the great- 
ness of his strength ; he, men, is Indra. 

'He who fixed firm the moving earth, who spread the 
spacious firmament ; he, men, is Indra. 

4 He who having destroyed Vritra, set free the seven rivers : 



chap, vii.] HINDU RELIGIONS. 143 

who recovered the cows ; who generated fire in the clouds ; 
who is invincible in battle ; he, men, is Indra. 

4 He to whom heaven and earth bow down ; he at whose 
might the mountains are appalled ; he who is drinker of the 
Soma juice, the firm of frame, the adamant armed, the wielder 
of the thunderbolt ; he, men, is Indra. May we envelope 
thee with acceptable praises as husbands are embraced by 
their wives.' 

Among the gods that bring the light, Ushas, 
the dawn, calls forth the richest songs, for she it is 
who chases the darkness and makes ready a path- 
way for the sun, and who awakens in every 
Brahman's breast the morning prayer which for 
full four thousand years has gone up from pious 
Hindus : ' Let us meditate on the adorable light 
of the divine creator ; may He rouse our minds ! ' 

Here is a fine, simple hymn to Ushas : 

1 She shines upon us, like a young wife, rousing every 
living being to go to his work. When the fire had to be 
kindled by men, she made the light by striking down 
darkness. 

6 She rose up, spreading far and wide, and moving every- 
where. She grew in brightness, wearing her brilliant gar- 
ment. The mother of the cows (that is, the mornings), the 
leader of the days, she shone gold- coloured, lovely to behold. 

4 She, the fortunate, who brings the eye of the gods, who 
leads the white and lovely steed (of the sun), the dawn was 



144 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

seen revealed by her rays, with brilliant treasures, following 
every one. 

4 Thou who art a blessing where thou art near, drive far 
away the unfriendly ; make the pasture wide, give us safety! 
Scatter the enemy, bring riches ! Raise up wealth to the 
worshipper, thou mighty Dawn. 

1 Shine for us with our best rays, thou bright Dawn, thou 
who lengthenest our life, thou the love of all, who givest us 
food, who givest us wealth in cows, horses and chariots. 

' Thou daughter of the sky, thou high-born Dawn, whom 
the Yasishthas magnify with songs, give us riches high and 
wide : all ye gods protect us always with your blessings.' 

(Vasishtha is the name of one of the chief poets of the 
Yeda.) 

After these gladsome words the poet thinks of 
the many dawns that have come and gone and of 
the eyes that once saw them and now see them no 
more, and the thought finds words in a sadder 
song. 

Of the many gods yet remaining, I can only 
speak of Varuna, noblest and best. For he rules 
over all ; he governs the seasons of the year ; he 
sets sun, moon and stars in their courses, and it is 
of him that the sin-stricken worshippers ask for 
pardon and deliverance from evil. For he sur- 
rounds them all, and his messengers note down 
the wrongdoings of men and cast sickness and 



chap, vii.] HINDU RELIGIONS. 145 

death upon the wicked. Amhas, the Sanskrit 
word for sin, is a very forceful one. It comes 
from a root meaning to choice or throttle, for the 
hold which sin has upon a man is as the grasp of 
the murderer on the throat of his victim. 

Professor Max Muller says that ' the conscious- 
ness of sin is a leading feature in the religion of 
the Veda, so is likewise the belief that the gods 
are able to take away from man the heavy burden 
of his sins. And when we read such words as 
" Varuna is merciful even to him who has com- 
mitted sin," we should surely not allow the strange 
name of Varuna to jar on our ears, but should re- 
member that it is but one of the many names 
which men invented in their helplessness to express 
their ideas of the Deity/ That Varuna should 
have appeared to the Hindu as a god to whom 
sin was hateful and to whom mercy was a delight, 
proves how nearly he had reached the truth 
about One who ' is of purer eyes than to behold 
iniquity/ 

Some of the verses in this hymn bear a strong 
likeness to one of the grandest Psalms in the Bible, 
the 139th; 



146 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

' The great lord of these worlds sees as if he were near. If 
a man thinks he is walking by stealth, the gods know it all. 

6 If a man stands or walks or hides, if he goes to lie down 
or to get up, what two people sitting together whisper, King 
Varuna knows it, he is there as the third/ 

(So the Psalmist says : ' Thou compassest my path and my 
lying down and art acquainted with all my ways.' Verse 3.) 

' This earth, too, belongs to Yaruna the king, and this wide 
sky with its ends far apart. The two seas (the sky and the 
ocean) are Varuna's loins ; he is also contained in this drop 
of water. 

' He who should flee far beyond the sky, even he would not 
be rid of Varuna the king. His spies proceed from heaven 
towards this world ; with thousand eyes they overlook this 
earth. (Compare with this verses 7 to 12 of the same 
psalm.) 

King Yaruna sees all this, what is between heaven and 
earth, and what is beyond. He has counted the twinklings 
of the eyes of men. As a player throws the dice, he settles 
all things. 

4 May all thy fatal nooses, which stand spread out seven 
by seven and threefold, catch the man who tells a lie, may 
they pass by him who tells the truth/ 

I must not omit a few verses from prayers in 
which pardon for sin is sought : 

' However we break thy laws from day to day, men as we 
are, god Yaruna, 

4 Do not deliver us unto death, nor to the blow of the 
furious, nor to the wrath of the spiteful ! ' 



chap, vii.] HIXDU RELIGIOXS. 147 

Again : 

4 Wise and mighty are the works of him -who stemmed 
asunder. the wide firmaments (heaven and earth). He lifted 
on high the bright and glorious heaven ; he stretched out 
apart the starry sky and the earth. 

4 I ask, Varuna ! wishing to know this my sin. I go to 
ask the wise. The sages all tell me the same : Yaruna it is 
who is angry with thee. 

( Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those 
which we committed with our own bodies/ 

The following contains some of the finest verses 
in the Yeda : 

4 Let me not yet, Yaruna ! enter into the house of clay ; 
have mercy, almighty, have mercy ! 

4 If I go along trembling, like a cloud driven by the wind ; 
have mercy, almighty, have mercy ! 

4 Through want of strength, thou strong and bright god, 
have I gone wrong ; have mercy, almighty, have mercy ! 

4 Thirst came upon the worshipper, though he stood in the 
midst of the waters ; have mercy, almighty, have mercy ! 

' Whenever we men, Yaruna ! commit an offence before 
the heavenly host, whenever we break the law through 
thoughtlessness ; punish us not, god, for that offence ! ' 

There is plenty of proof in the Veda that the 
ancient Hindus believed in a life after death. 

The king of that other world is Yama. He 

and his sister Yami are said to have been the 



148 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

first pair, and when they reached the abode 
of bliss to have made ready a place for those who 
should follow them. In Persian legend Yama 
appeared as Yima, ruler of the golden age and 
founder of Paradise. 

Life to these Eastern Aryans was a sunny, 
joyful thing, and no sad, thought-filled burden. 
In their prayers they asked for wealth, children, 
long life, success in war, and yet did not shrink 
with any needless dread at the fact that life musi 
one day have an end. They believed that in 
some bright place where the gods dwelt they and 
their loved ones would be gathered under the 
peaceful sway of Yama. They made offerings to 
the spirits of their forefathers as a pious duty, 
and laid the bodies of their dead in the ground 
< in sure and certain hope ' that the soul was safe 
with Yama. At a later date the body was burned 
on the altar of Agni, that it might ascend through 
him to the gods and be reunited to the spirit. 
There is in the Rig- Veda a hymn of surpassing 
tenderness and beauty, which is still used at 
Hindu funeral ceremonies. After some verses, in 
which Death is asked to harm the suppliants no 



chap, vii.] HINDU RELIGIONS. 149 

more, the body was placed in the ground with 
these soft, sweet words : 

1 Approach thou now the lap of Earth, thy mother, 
The wide-extending Earth, the ever-kindly ; 
A maiden soft as wool to him who comes with gifts, 

She shall protect thee from destruction's bosom. 

6 Open thyself, Earth, and press not heavily ; 

Be easy of access and of approach to him, 
As mother with her robe her child, 

So do thou cover him, earth ! 

' May Earth maintain herself thus opened wide for him ; 
A thousand props shall give support about him ; 
And may those mansions ever drip with fatness ; 
May they be there for evermore his refuge. 

' Forth from about thee thus I build away the ground; 

As I lay down this clod may I receive no harm j 
This pillar may the Fathers here maintain for thee ; 
May Yama there provide for thee a dwelling/ 

Such were the hymns and prayers in which the 
Vedic worshippers addressed their gods as they 
smeared the sacred grass with soma-juice or 
poured butter on the fire. The Veda contains a 
large number of commonplace and foolish hymns, 
but we judge the book by what in it is best. The 



150 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

power of writing worthy songs of praise to God 
is a rare gift; as rare to-day as in that far-off 
time. 

The Vedic religion had no temples, no priest- 
hood/ no idols. The millions of gods which are 
the objects of Hindu worship now, the division of 
men into castes, the horrid practice (now for- 
bidden) of burning women with their dead hus- 
bands, the belief that the soul after death enters 
the body of one animal after another ; formed no 
part of the old religion, the freshness of which 
faded away under these and like corrupting forces. 
That religion, traces of which, mixed with devil 
and serpent- worship, still linger among the dwel- 
lers in remote places, on hills and amidst jungles, 
was followed by a time when the human mind 
was stirred by the great questions which lay 
behind the simple nature-worship ; when it 
asked who knew whence and why all things were ? 
One by one Indra and Agni and the rest fell from 
their high places to lower ones, and became 
symbols of the supreme soul Brahma or 
Brahm.* 

* See note G. 



chap. VII. ] HIND U RELIGIONS. 1 5 1 

Of the subtle systems which had birth in those 
times nothing can be said here, and we will deal 
with the common belief only. 

There came to the front a 'class of men called 
Brahmans, who have ever since had the highest 
honour paid them, and who were quick to claim 
power over others and to build upon the Vedas a 
huge system by which to rule every moment of a 
mans life. 

In Yedic times, the inhabitants Avere of two 
classes ; the fair-skinned Aryans and the dark- 
skinned races whom they had subdued. But the 
Brahmans pretended that the Veda gave its sanc- 
tion to a division of the people into castes. It 
was made to say that when Brahma created men, 
the Brahmans or priests came from his mouth, the 
soldiers from his arm, the traders and farmers from 
his thigh, and the Sudras (the conquered race in 
India) from his foot. The Brahmans thus set 
themselves over all. They laid down rules so 
strict about prayers and sacrifices and made the 
favour of the gods to depend on such trifling 
things, that every one was glad to secure their 
help to do these duties aright. The people be- 



152 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

lieved that the Brahmans alone knew what foods 
might be eaten, what air might be breathed, what 
clothes might be worn, and what was the proper 
length of the ladle in which the offering was to be 
put. No wonder that against so dead a creed and 
against such claims as these Buddha rose in revolt 
and founded that great religion which crushed 
Brahmanism for centuries, and which, although it 
has scarcely any followers in the land of its birth, 
is still professed by hundreds of millions of human 
beings. The chief gods of the later Hindu reli- 
gion, which has traces of the Buddhism overthrown 
by it, are Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, forming the 
Hindu Trinity or Trimurti (from iri 9 three, and 
murti, form). Vishnu and Siva had their different 
worshippers, which gave rise to two large sects, but 
the Brahmans, who feared that their power would 
decay as these sects increased, cleverly united 
those two gods to Brahma, and the pious Hindu 
bows his head alike to each. In the present day 
Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are worshipped as three 
in one, their symbol being the sacred word Om. 
The words of an ancient Hindu poet have been 
thus translated : — 



chap, vii.] HINDU RELIGIONS. 153 

6 In those Three Persons the One God was shown, 
Each First in place, each Last, — not one alone ; 
Of Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, each may be 
First, second, third, among the Blessed Three.' 

Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu the preserver, and 
Siva the destroyer. 

Brahma has neither temples nor altars of his 
own, but images of him are found in the temples 
of other gods. He is far removed from the 
worship of men, for as creator of all he remains 
in calm repose ; a motionless majesty, away 
from the world where life is ever battling with 
death, and will so remain until the end of present 
things. He is figured as a four-headed god, bear- 
ing in his hands the Vedas, a rosary and vessels 
for purifying. 

Vishnu receives the worship of millions, and has 
great honour paid him as Krishna, one of the 
forms in which they believe he came to earth. 
The Avatars of Vishnu are his descents to this 
world from time to time to save it when ruin 
threatened it at the hands of king, giant, or demon, 
and he then comes under the disguise of man or 
animal. As such a divine deliverer the brightest 



154 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

memories crowd round him under the myth of 
Krishna. A mighty demon-king, Kansa, had rule 
over the world, and when he heard that a child 
was born who would grow up and destroy him, 
he ordered a general slaughter of young boys, 
hoping thus to kill the child. But it was sent to 
a place of safety and grew up as beautiful Krishna, 
god of love, and slayer of Kansa. This was the 
eighth incarnation or avatar of Vishnu, his ninth 
being, according to some Hindu writings, as the 
Buddha ; and at his tenth and last, he will make 
an end of all things, and sleeping on the waters 
that will cover the world when the tortoise that 
holds it up sinks under his load, will produce 
Brahma, who will create the world anew. 

Siva, whose name does not occur in the Yedic 
hymns, but whose worship prevailed from remote 
times in India, called forth a different class of 
worshippers, for fear and terror brought them to 
his feet. Flood and earthquake, drought and 
tempest, and worst of all, dark death, were his 
work. His queen was Kali, terrible black god- 
dess, in whose honour very loathsome things 
were once done. Siva is figured with a rope 



chap, vii.] HINDU RELIGIONS. 155 

for strangling evil-doers, with necklace of human 
skulls, with earrings of serpents and with the 
sacred river Ganges upon his head. He is called 
'Ganges -bearer/ because when that river de- 
scended from heaven he checked the torrent, so 
that the earth might bear its fall. 

Besides these three great gods, there are some 
of the old Vedic gods who still command reverence, 
while the lesser gods are to be counted by millions. 
And we must not forget how large a share of wor- 
ship has been paid to the bull and cow; a worship 
which, we can well understand, arose among the 
undivided Aryans, since it spread into Northern 
lands, as well as into India. Brahmanism at 
this day includes the few who believe that 
nothing exists but spirit, that all else is unreal, 
that to get united to this spirit and thus freed 
from the ills of time is the true and only bliss ; 
and the many who go their round of priest- 
bidden duty month by month; paying worship 
in June, to the river Ganges, whose sacred waters 
cleanse from sin and make the low-caste holy ; in 
July, to the famous Jaganath (Juggernaut) ; in 
August, to Krishna, and so on throughout the 



156 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN [chap. vii. 

year ; and who expect when they die, not the 
meeting of friend with friend in the heaven 
where Yama rules, but an entrance into the 
body of one animal after another until, made 
quite pure, their soul is united to the supreme 
Soul. 

This account, meagre as it is, has already run to 
greater length than I had intended. A full state- 
ment of the religions of India ; land of dazzling 
marvels, of many races and many sects, some of 
them, as the Sikhs and the Jainas, important 
enough to take rank as separate religions ; land 
upon which Greeks, Mohammadans, English and 
others have set their greedy eyes; would have 
to tell of strangely mixed beliefs, some loftiest of 
any that have dwelt in the mind of man, 
others lowest to which poor wild savage has 
clung. 

Brahmanism is slowly giving way before the 
higher teaching of Christians and Mohammadans, 
and of a few earnest men in its midst who are 
striving to purify it, and to win the Hindus to the 
simple creed which underlies the world's great 



chap, vii.] HINDU RELIGIONS. 157 

religions and which shows itself in doing and not 
in dreaming. 

We must hope that Christian missionaries will 
cease to feel jealous when Hindus become Moham- 
madans, that Mohammadans will cease their bitter 
hate against Christians, and that each will take 
pains to understand what the religion of the other 
is. They will then find how much there is upon 
which they can agree, and so leave each other free 
to work for the good of mankind. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ZOROASTRIANISM ; THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF 
PERSIA. 

Of Zoroaster, the founder of the religion of the 
Parsis (or people of Pars, that is, ancient Persia,) 
we have no trustworthy account. There are many- 
Greek, Roman and Persian legends of the miracles 
which he worked and of the temptations which 
he overcame, but they throw little or no light 
upon his true history. 

He was probably born in Bactria, and his name 
implies that he became one of the priests who 
attended upon the sacred fire. We are sure that he 
lived more than three thousand years ago, because 
his religion was founded before the conquest of Bac- 
tria by the Assyrians, which took place about twelve 
hundred years before Christ. It has been argued, 
chiefly from the strong likeness between Jewish 
and Persian legends, that he was a neighbour 



chap, viil] ZOROASTRIANISM. 159 

of Abraham, but of this the proof is far too 
slender. 

He was a man of mighty mind ; one not con- 
tent to worship powers that ruled the darkness 
and the light, but that seemed to have no sway 
over the heaving sea of human passion and sor- 
row. To him was given the message of One Who 
was Lord of all, and Who was not to Zoroaster a 
being like unto man. He was Ahura, ' Spiri- 
tual Mighty-One ; ' Mazda, ' Creator of All.' 
Ahura- Mazda (afterwards corrupted into Ormuzd) 
is thus spoken of in the Zend-Avesta, an account 
of the contents of which book is given in Note H. 

* Blessed is he, blessed are all men to whom the living wise 
God of his own command should grant those two everlasting 
powers (immortality and parity). I believe thee, God, to 
be the best thing of all, the source of light for the world. 
Everyone shall choose thee as the source of light, thee, thee, 
holiest Mazda ! . . . 

4 1 ask thee, tell me it right, thou living God ! "Who was 
from the beginning the Father of the pure world ? "Who has 
made a path for the sun and for the stars ? Who (but thou) 
makes the moon to increase and to decrease ? This I wish to 
know, except what I already know. 

4 Who holds the earth and the skies above it ? Who made 
the waters and the trees of the field ? Who is in the winds 
and storms that they so quickly run ? Who is the Creator of 



160 ZOROASTRTANISM; [chap. viii. 

the good-minded beings, thou Wise? Who has made the 
kindly light and the darkness, the kindly sleep, and the 
awaking ! 

' Who has made the mornings, the noons and the nights, 
they who remind the wise of his duty ? ' 

In a later part of the Zend-Avesta, Zoroaster 
asked Ormuzd what was the most powerful spell 
to guard against evil. He was answered by the 
Supreme Spirit that to utter the twenty different 
names of Ahura-Mazda protects best from evil, and 
thereupon Zoroaster asks what these are. He is 
told that the first is, ' I am ; ' the sixth, ' I am 
wisdom/ and so on until the twentieth, which is 
' I am who I am, Mazdao.' Highest of all, Ahura- 
Mazda, was said to have below him angels who did 
his bidding, ' Immortal Holy Ones/ whose names 
seem to be echoes of the Vedic gods, and by whose 
aid good deeds are wrought, and gifts bestowed 
upon men. 

I should say that the feeling between those who 
clung to the older faith and the followers of 
Zoroaster grew so bitter that the gods of the Vedic 
hymns became demons in the Zend-Avesta. In 
that book Indra is an evil being ; in the Vedic 
belief Ahura is a demon. The Devas of the 



chap, viii.] THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF PERSIA, 161 

Veda are the Daevas or evil sjDirits of the Zend- 
Avesta, and the converts to the new religion had 
to declare that they ceased to worship the Devas. 
It is well nigh certain that Zoroaster believed in 
one God, and explained the mystery of evil as the 
work of demons ruled by an archfiend 'Angra- 
Mainyus/ the 'Sinful-minded/ afterwards known 
as Ahriman. In the course of time, as men saw 
that the powers of good and evil seemed equal, 
neither being able to conquer, Ahriman was 
held to be as supreme over evil as Ormuzd 
was over good. The Supreme mind that had 
fashioned all was forgotten, and the universe 
was regarded as a battle-field whereon these two 
waged unceasing war, not as between Indra and 
Vritra, for a herd of heavenly cows, but for 
dominion over all things, Ahriman having, like 
Ormuzd, ranks of angels who served him. 

The thought of evil around him and within him 
caused Zoroaster to feel heavy at heart, but it did 
not make him fold his hands in despair. In the 
Gathas or oldest part of the Zend-Avesta, which 
contains the leading doctrines of Zoroaster, he asks 
Ormuzd for truth and guidance and desires to 



1 62 ZOROASTRIANISM; [chap. viii. 

know what lie shall do. He is told to be pure in 
thought, word and deed ; to be temperate, chaste 
and truthful ; to offer prayer to Ormuzd and the 
powers that fight with him ; to destroy all hurtful 
things (the ancient Persians looked upon ants, 
snakes and all vermin, as agents of the evil 
powers) ; and to do all that will increase the 
well-being of mankind. Men were not to cringe 
before the powers of darkness as slaves crouch 
before a tyrant, they were to meet them upstand- 
ing, and confound them by unending opposition 
and the power of a holy life. 

To such high thoughts, to be sweetened and 
kept in vigour by pure deeds, did this noble man 
give utterance, and we may believe that much of 
truth underlies the sketch which the good Baron 
Bunsen has drawn of the assembling together of 
the people at the command of Zoroaster that they 
might choose between the nature-gods of their 
fathers and the Lord whom he would have them 
serve. 

Bunsen pictures the assembly as gathered on 
' one of the holy hills dedicated to the worship of 
fire in the neighbourhood of the primeval city of 



chap, viii.] THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF PERSIA. 163 

marvels in Central Asia — Bactria, the glorious, 
now called Balkh.' Thus Zoroaster speaks in the 
Zend-Avesta : 

4 Now I shall proclaim to all who have come to listen, the 
praises of Thee, the all- wise Lord, and the hymns of the good 
Spirit. 

1 Hear with your ears what is best, perceive with your mind 
what is pure, so that every man may for himself choose his 
tenets before the great doom. May the wise be on our side ! 

* Those old spirits who are twins, made known what is 
good and what is evil in thoughts, words and deeds. Those 
who are good, distinguished between the two, not those who 
are evil-doers. 

4 When these two Spirits came together, they made first 
life and death, so that there should be at last the most 
wretched life for the bad, but for the good blessedness. 

4 Of these two Spirits the evil one chose the worst deeds ; 
the kind Spirit, He whose garment is the immovable sty, 
chose what is right ; and they also who faithfully please 
Ahuramazda by good works. 

4 Let us then be of those who farther . this world ; oh 
Ahuramazda, oh bliss-conferring Asha! (truth). Let our mind 
be there where wisdom abides. 

4 Then indeed there will be the fall of the pernicious Druj 
(falsehood), but in the beautiful abode of Vohumano (the good 
spirit), of Mazda, and Asha, will be gathered for ever those 
who dwell in good report. 

4 Oh men, if you cling to these commandments which 
Mazda has given, which are a torment to the wicked and a 
blessing to the righteous, then there will be victory through 
them.' 



164 ZOROASTRIANISM ; [chap. viii. 

In this old faith there was a belief in two 
abodes for the departed ; heaven, the ' house of 
the angels' hymns/ and hell, where the wicked 
were sent. Between the two there was a bridge, 
over which the souls of the righteous alone passed 
in safety; the wicked falling into the dark dwell- 
ing-place of Ahriman. There are also traces of 
a resurrection and judgment-day, which will be 
foretold by Sosiosh, son of Zoroaster, who shall 
come as the Messiah, or Prophet of Ormuzd, to 
convert the world and slay the arch-fiend Ahriman, 
or, as another account relates, to purify the earth 
by fire, consume all evil, and bring forth from the 
ashes a new heaven and a new earth, wherein 
righteousness alone shall dwell. 

The few rites and ceremonies which Zoroaster 
imported into his religion were doubtless such as 
were familiar to the Aryans when together, and 
were mainly the offering of Homa and of fire. 
The Persian Homa or Haoma is the same as the 
Hindu Soma, and hymns to it occur in the Zend- 
Avesta. Ormuzd being the source of light, has 
for symbols the sun, moon and planets and also 
fire, which is regarded as his pure creation and 



chap, viii.] THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF PERSIA. 165 

therefore most sacred of all things upon earth. 
The offering of fire has continued to the present 
day, nor is the flame ever suffered to go out. The 
Zoroastrians had neither temples nor idols and the 
fire was kept burning in an enclosed space, the 
chief rites of worship being performed before it. 

The Parsi still faces some light-giving object, as 
the sun or fire, when he offers his prayer, and the 
priests cover their faces when they approach the 
flame, lest it be defiled by their breath. It is 
however, untrue to speak of the Parsis as 
worshipping fire ; they simply regard it as an 
emblem of divine power and honour it accord- 
ingly. Life being the gift of Ormuzd and 
therefore dear to him, no sacrifice of blood was 
offered in the early centuries of the religion, but 
many corruptions have since crept in and overlaid 
this once purest and noblest of all the creeds of 
Asia. 

Since death was the dark deed of Ahriman, the 
dead body has ever been looked upon with horror, 
and as the Parsis believed that the evil demons 
had secured it, it could not be permitted to pollute 
the pure elements which Ormuzd had created; 



166 ZOROASTRIANISM; [chap. viii. 

earth, fire and water. So it was put on some 
exposed place ; some ' Tower of Silence ' where 
birds of prey devoured the flesh, and the sunlight 
bleached the bones, which were afterwards buried 
in the earth : and such is the practice to this day. 
But the Zoroastrians had a good hope that the 
demons had not touched the pure soul, which 
passed away beyond the eastern mountains to the 
sun-lit paradise of the holy, and there entered into 
rest. 

The history of Persia is full of interest. It was 
the first among the Aryan nations to rise into 
importance. Under Cyrus, whose name and deeds 
are spoken of in the Old Testament, it became a 
mighty empire, whose boundary stretched from 
the Indus to Asia Minor, and it was during his 
reign that the Jews were freed from their captivity 
at Babylon and returned to Palestine. Darius, 
Xerxes (the Ahasuerus of Scripture), these are 
names well-known to us, and under them and 
other kings Persia remained powerful for centuries 
until it was conquered by the Arabs, when the old 
Zoroastrian faith gave place to Mohammadanism. 



CHAP, viii.] THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF PERSIA. 167 

Professor Max Muller remarks : ' There were 
periods in the history of the world when the wor- 
ship of Ormuzd threatened to rise triumphant on 
the ruins of the temples of all other gods. If the 
battles of Marathon and Salamis had been lost and 
Greece had succumbed to Persia, the state religion 
of the empire of Cyrus, which was the worship of 
Ormuzd, might have become the religion of the 
whole civilized world.' 

But this was not to be ; and there now remain 
in Asia only a few hundred thousand Parsis, some 
of whom dwell iu the old land, while the greater 
number have settled in and around Bombay. 

Their creed is of the simplest kind ; it is to 
fear God, to live a life of pure thoughts, pure 
words, pure deeds, and to die in the hope of a 
world to come. It is the creed of those who have 
lived nearest to God and served Him faithfullest in 
every age, and wherever they dwell who accept it 
and practise it, they bear witness to that which 
makes them children of God and brethren of the 
prophets, among whom Zoroaster was not the least. 

The Jews were carried away as captives to 



1 68 ZOROASTRIANISM; [chap, viil 

Babylon some 600 years before Christ, and during 
the seventy years of their exile there, they came 
into contact with the Persian religion and derived 
from it ideas about the immortality of the soul, 
which their own religion did not contain. They 
also borrowed from it their belief in a multitude 
of angels, and in Satan as the ruler over evil 
spirits. The ease with which man believes in 
unearthly powers working for his hurt prepares a 
people to admit into its creed the doctrine of evil 
spirits, and although it is certain that the Jews 
had no belief in such spirits before their captivity 
in Babylon, they spoke of Satan (which means an 
adversary) as a messenger sent from God to watch 
the deeds of men and accuse them to Him for their 
wrong-doing. Satan thus becoming by degrees an 
object of dread, upon whom all the evil which 
befel men was charged, the minds of the Jews 
were ripe for accepting the Persian doctrine of 
Ahriman with his legions of devils. Ahriman 
became the Jewish Satan, a belief in whom 
formed part of early Christian doctrine, and is 
now but slowly dying out. What fearful ills it 
has caused, history has many a page to tell. The 



chap, vin.] THE AXCIEXT RELIGION OF PERSIA. 169 

doctrine that Satan, once an angel of light, had 
been cast from heaven for rebellion against God, 
and had ever since played havoc among mankind, 
gave rise to the belief that he and his demons 
could possess the souls of men and animals at 
pleasure. Hence grew the belief in wizards and 
witches, under which millions of creatures, both 
young and old, were cruelly tortured and put to 
death. 

We turn over the smeared pages of this history 
in haste, thankful that from such a nightmare the 
world has wakened, and assured that God tempts 
us not, neither devil nor wicked angel, but that, 
as Jesus said, ' out of the heart 9 proceed evil 
thoughts and all that doth defile. (See on this 
matter ' Childhood of the World/ pp. 92-94.) 



CHAPTER IX. 

BUDDHISM. 

Although Buddhism, which numbers more fol- 
lowers than any other faith, is hundreds of years 
younger than the old Hindu religion, we know 
less about it. We miss in it the gladness which 
bursts forth in the hymns of the Veda, and to 
turn from them to it is like reading the sad 
thoughts in the Book of Ecclesiastes after the 
cheerful songs of praise in the Book of Psalms. 
But if clouds and darkness are round about it, 
and our learned men differ as to what much of it 
really means, this should not surprise us, since a 
knowledge of it has come to hand only within the 
last few years. Even Christians are split up into 
many sects, because they cannot agree as to the 
exact meaning of many parts of Scripture, although 
the loving research of centuries has been given to 
find it out. 

We saw at page 151 how the Brahmans had 



chap, ix.] BUDDHISM. 171 

coiled their rules round men's souls and bodies, 
and placed upon them burdens grievous to be 
borne, without in any way satisfying the cravings 
of the human spirit. It was against all this that 
Buddhism revolted, just as in the reign of Henry 
VIII., the people of England and Germany threw 
off the shackles of Rome, and made possible the 
freedom which we now enjoy. 

The founder of Buddhism was of princely birth. 
He was born 628 years before Christ, in Kapila- 
vastu, the royal city of his father, who was ruler 
of a kingdom north of Oude, in India. He was 
called Gautama, from the tribe to which his 
family belonged ; Sdkya-Muni, or ' the monk of 
the race of Sakya ; ' Sidddrtha, a name given 
him by his father, and meaning ( He in whom 
wishes are fulfilled ; ' and in later years Buddha, 
or more correctly, the Buddha ; the enlightened ; 
from the root budh, to know. (For legends of his 
birth, see Note I.) 

His mother, to whom the future greatness and 
mighty sway of her boy over mens hearts were 
made known in a dream, died a few days after his 
birth. He grew up a beautiful and clever boy, 



172 BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 

and ' never felt so happy as when he could sit 
alone lost in thought in the deep shadows of the 
forest/ although, as he proved when a young 
man, no unskilled foe to meet in tournament or 
war. So sad and serious did he become, that his 
father feared he would grow up a mere dreamer, 
and, with the view of calling him to an active life, 
chose a lovely princess to become his wife. He 
lived happily with her, but was still given to much 
thought about life and death. Prof. Max 
Miiller tells us that he used to say, ' Nothing on 
earth is stable, nothing is real. Life is as tran- 
sitory as a spark of fire, or the sound of a lyre. 
There must be some supreme intelligence where 
we could find rest. If I attained it I could bring 
light to men ; if I were free myself, T could 
deliver the world.' His friends tried to divert 
his thoughts from these matters by gay scenes and 
courtly splendours, but it was in vain. At this 
time he met three sights which deepened his 
sadness, for they told him what awaited him. 
These were a feeble old man ; a fever-sick and 
mud-stained man ; and a dead body. Afterwards 
he met a devotee, and resolved, like him, to 



chap, ix.] BUDDHISM. 173 

retire from the world, and thereby, as he vainly 
thought, escape all that in it is unreal and sad. 
One night, as he lay upon his couch, a crowd of 
dancing girls came and displayed their charms 
before him, but in vain ; and when sleep fell 
upon him, they, weary and vexed, ceased their 
dancing, and were soon asleep also. Gautama 
woke at midnight to find them lying around him ; 
and seeing some tossing heavily, some open- 
mouthed, and others coiled up, it seemed to him 
as if nought but loathsome bodies filled his 
splendid apartment, and that all was vanity. That 
moment be resolved to leave his palace, and wbile 
his servant was saddling the fleetest of his horses, 
he gently opened the room where his wife was 
sleeping that he might see his child. The mother 
had one of her hands over its head, and fearing to 
waken them, he resolved to go, and not look upon 
his boy till he had become the Buddha. One 
legend says that he had scarcely crossed the 
threshold when the tempter met him and sought 
to thwart his purpose by promising him rule over 
all the kingdoms of this world ; but Gautama would 
not yield, yet from that day the tempter ceased 



174 BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 

not to attack the holy man. He went among the 
Brahmans to see if their teaching would lighten 
his burden ; he did what they told him, performed 
their rites and ceremonies, but these brought him 
no peace. He left them and retired to a small 
village, where, after practising the most severe 
rites, the repute of his sanctity brought to him 
five disciples, with whom he remained six years. 
Seeing that such a life led not to perfection, but 
was useless and selfish, giving nothing and taking 
all, he returned to more cheerful ways, and, still 
pursuing his thinking, had his reward. As he 
sat one day beneath a tree, a great joy came to 
him, for knowledge burst in upon him by which 
he became Buddha, the man who knew. 

While fasting under the tree during the sacred 
period of seven times seven days and nights the 
demon of wickedness attacked him a second time, 
even using force, but was defeated by the power 
of the ten great virtues of Buddha, the weapons of 
the evil one and of his soldiers being changed into 
beautiful flowers as they fell upon Buddha, and 
the rocks becoming nosegays as they were hurled 
at him ; whereupon the spirits who had watched 



chap. IX.] BUDDHISM. 175 

over his birth and who now followed his life on 
earth rent the air with shouts of joy at his victory. 
Afterwards the tempter sent his three daughters, 
one a winning girl ; one a blooming virgin ; and 
one a middle-aged beauty, to allure him, but 
they could not. Buddha was proof against all the 
demon's arts, and his only trouble was whether 
it were w r ell or not to preach his doctrines to 
men. Feeling how hard to gain was that which 
he had gained, and how enslaved men were by 
their passions so that they might neither listen to 
him nor understand him, he had well nigh resolved 
to be silent, but at the last deep compassion for 
all beings made him resolve to tell his secret to 
mankind that they too might be free, and he thus 
became the founder of the most popular religion 
of ancient or modern times. The spot where 
Buddha obtained his knowledge became one of 
the most sacred places in India. He first preached 
at Benares, or, as they say, ' turned the wheel of 
the law/ a phrase which may have given rise to 
the wheels on which some of his words are in- 
scribed and which are set in motion by wind 
or water. He met with great opposition from the 



176 BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 

Brahmans, but kept on his way, converting the 
high and the low until in his eighty-fifth year he 
died peacefully while sitting under a tree. His re- 
mains were burnt amidst great pomp and quarrels 
arose for the possession of the fragments. They 
were at last divided into eight portions, over each 
of which a tope (a Hindu word for a bell-shaped 
building raised over relics) was built. Of course 
the usual legends teeming with stories of wonder- 
ful miracles grew around his memory, and this 
notwithstanding that he told his disciples the only 
true wonder was to ' hide their good deeds and 
confess before men their sins/ The myths and 
traditions of the Buddhists about the universe and 
the things therein are absurd in the extreme. 

Very soon after his death a general council of 
his disciples was held to fix the doctrines and 
rules of the religion. Buddha had written nothing 
himself, and the council is said to have chosen from 
his followers those who remembered most of his 
teaching. It is interesting to note that among 
these were two men, one of deep earnestness and 
zeal ; the other of most sweet nature, loving 
Buddha much and most beloved by him; remind- 



chap, ix.] BUDDHISM. 177 

ing us of two of Christ's disciples, Peter and 
John. 

Two other councils were afterwards held for 
the correction of errors that had crept into the 
faith, and for sending missionaries into other 
lands. The last of these councils is said to have 
been held 251 years before Christ, so that long 
before Christianity was founded we have this 
great religion with its sacred traditions of 
Buddha's words, its councils and its missions, 
besides, as we shall presently see, many things 
strangely like the rites of the Roman Catholic 
Church. 

The Buddhist scriptures are called the ' Tripi- 
taka,' * or ' three baskets/ being in three parts. 
The first ' pitaka ' contains rules of discipline ; the 
second, the discourses of Buddha; and the third 
treats of philosophy and the subtle doctrines of the 
religion. The words of Buddha, handed on from 
age to age and preserved in the memories of men, 
were at last set down in writing. They grew, as 
our Scriptures have grown, much entering into them 
which Buddha never said, but all the writings at 

* See Note K. 



178 BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 

last received as the sacred records of his teaching 
and religion. 

Among the traditions concerning Buddha, there 
is one which tells of a young mother whose child 
died and whose dead body, in her great love and 
sorrow, she clasped to her bosom, and went about 
from house to house asking if any one would give 
her some medicine for it. The neighbours thought 
her mad, but a wise man, seeing that she could 
not or would not understand the law of death, 
said to her, f My good girl, I cannot myself give 
medicine for it, but I know of a doctor who can 
attend to it.' She asked who it was, and was 
sent by the wise man to Buddha. After doing 
homage to him, she said, ' Lord and master, do 
you know any medicine that will be good for my 
boy?' Buddha replied that he did, and told her 
to fetch a handful of mustard seed which must be 
taken from a house where no son, husband, parent, 
or slave had died. Then the woman went in search, 
but no such house could she find, for whenever 
she asked if there had died any of those, the 
answer came from one, ' I have lost a son;' from 
another, ' I have lost my parents ; ' and from all, 



chap, ix.] BUDDHISM. 179 

'Lady, the living are few, but the dead are many.' 
At last, not finding any house where death had 
not been, the truth broke in upon her, and leaving 
the dead body of her boy in a forest, she returned 
to Buddha, and told her tale. He said to her, 
' You thought that you alone had lost a son ; the 
law of death is that among all living creatures 
there is nothing that abides,' and when he had 
finished preaching the law, the woman became 
his disciple. 

Once upon a time Buddha lived in a village, 
and in the sowing season, went with his bowl in 
hand to the place where food was being given by 
a Brahman, who seeing him, spoke thus: 

1 priest, I both plough and sow, and having ploughed and 
sown, I eat ; you also, priest, should plough and sow, and 
having ploughed and sown, you should eat.' 

' I too, O Brahman, plough and sow, and having ploughed 
and sown, I eat/ said Buddha. 

4 But we see neither the yoke, nor plough, nor ploughshare, 
nor goad, nor oxen, ot the venerable Gautama. . . . 

4 Being questioned by us as to your ploughing, speak in such 
a manner as we may know of your ploughing/ 

The Buddha replied : ' For my cultivation, faith is the 
seed; penance the rain; wisdom my yoke and plough; 
modesty the shaft for the plough ; mind the string ; presence- 
of mind my ploughshare and goad/ 



180 BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 

Then the Brahman offered him rice boiled in 
milk from a golden vessel. 

In a chapter very popular among the Buddhists 
of Ceylon, the demon Alavaka is said to have 
asked Buddha, ' What is the best wealth to a 
man in this world ? What thing well done pro- 
duces happiness ? Of savoury things, which is 
indeed the most savoury? The life of one ^\ho 
lives in what manner, do they say, is the best ? ' 

Buddha answered : ' Faith is the best wealth to 
a man here. The observing well the law pro- 
duces happiness. Truth is indeed the most sa- 
voury of all savoury things. The living endowed 
with wisdom, they say, is the best of all modes of 
living/ 

On another occasion, when asked what was the 
greatest blessing, Buddha said : 

* The succouring of mother and father, the cherishing of 
child and wife, and the following of a lawful calling, this is 
the greatest blessing. 

* The giving alms, a religious life, aid rendered to relations, 
blameless acts, this is the greatest blessing. 

* The abstaining from sins and the avoiding them, the es- 
chewing of intoxicating drink, diligence in good deeds, reve- 
rence and humility, contentment and gratefulness, this is the 
greatest blessing. 



chap, ix.] BUDDHISM. 181 

. . . ' Those who having done these tilings, become in- 
vincible on all sides, attain happiness on all sides. This is 
the greatest blessing.' 

There is a discourse of Buddha's which some 
have called, from the place where it was preached, 
his ' sermon on the mount/ but it lacks clearness, 
nor could it be set down in language easy to grasp. 
The extracts from Buddhist sacred books just 
given show how forcefully Buddha could put 
much meaning into few words, and of this there 
is rich proof in a book called the ' Dhammapada/ 
or ( Path of Virtue/ which is believed to contain 
his sayings. For example : 

1 He who lives looking for pleasures only, his senses uncon- 
trolled, idle and weak, Mara (the tempter) will certainly 
overcome him, as the wind throws down a weak tree.' 

' Let the wise man guard his thoughts, they are difficult to 
perceive, very artful, and they rush wherever they list ; 
thoughts well guarded bring happiness. 7 

1 As the bee collects nectar, and departs without injuring 
the flower, or its colour and scent, so let the sage dwell on 
earth.' 

1 Like a beautiful flower, full of colour but without scent, 
are the fine but fruitless words of him who does not act 
accordingly. But like a beautiful flower, full of colour and 
full of scent, are the fine and fruitful words of him who acts 
accordingly.' 



1 82 BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 

' He who lives a hundred years, vicious and unrestrained. 
a life of one day is better if a man is virtuous and reflecting. 

1 Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, It 
will not come near unto me. Even by the falling of water- 
drops a water-pot is filled ; the fool becomes full of evil 
even if he gathers it little by little. 7 

4 Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one's 
mind, that is the teaching of the Awakened.' (This is one of 
the most solemn verses among the Buddhists). 

4 Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us ! 
Let us dwell free from hatred among men who hate ! 

' Let us live happily then, free from greed among the 
greedy ! Let us dwell free from greed among men who are 
greedy ! 

1 Let us live happily then, though we call nothing our 
own ! "We shall be like the bright gods, feeding on happiness ! ' 

Buddhism became the state religion of India in 
the reign of King Asoka, (who ascended the throne 
about 268 years before Christ), and continued so for 
nearly nine centuries, until, from causes by no 
means clear, it was driven therefrom, and has 
since found its followers mainly among those 
great races of Asia which are neither Aryan nor 
Semitic, but which may be roughly classed as 
Mongol. It is one of the three State religions of 
China ; it is the religion of Tibet, and spreads 



chap, ix.] BUDDHISM. 183 

northwards to the confines of Swedish Lapland and 
southwards into Burmah, embracing nearly the 
whole of Eastern Asia, including Japan, in which 
island it is, however, not the state religion. The 
island of Ceylon supplies us with much of our 
knowledge about Buddha, and is rich in Buddhist 
architecture, cave-temples, shrines, ruined cities 
and relics, chiefest among which are a so-called 
tooth of Buddha, and a famous tree, nearly 2200 
years old, which is a branch of the tree under 
which he sat when he became the Enlightened. 
Buddhism as a great religion is a very different 
thing from Buddhism as a philosophy, and its 
marvellous success was surely not owing to Buddha's 
dreamy speculations about the misery of life, and 
to his dreary teaching as to the best way of escape 
therefrom. 

We saw that he strove to find in this world of 
unrest something that was lasting, the knowledge 
of which might release him from change and 
decay. Now the great doctrines of the deeper 
part of his religion are given in what he called 
'the four sublime truths.' 

They assert that there is pain ; that pain comes 



1 84 BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 

through the desire or passion for things that can- 
not be ours for long ; that both the pain and 
the desire can be ended by Nirvana, to which in 
the fourth truth Buddha shows the right way. 
Many learned men think that by this Buddha 
meant nothingness, ceasing to be, the soul being 
1 blown out ' like the flame of a candle. 

The four paths to this way are as follows : 

He has entered the first path who sees the 
evils arising from separate existence, and who 
believes in Buddha and in the power of his system 
alone to obtain salvation, that is, deliverance from 
separate existence. 

He has entered the second path who, besides 
the above, is free from lust and evil to others. 

He has entered the third path who is further 
free from all kinds of evil desires, from ignorance, 
doubt, wrong belief and hatred ; while 

He has arrived at the fourth path who is entirely 
free from sin (' has cast it away as if it were a bur- 
den '), and passions, by which are meant the lust 
of the flesh, the love of existence, and the defile- 
ments of wrong-belief and ignorance. 

The four paths have also been summed up in 



chap, ix.] BUDDHISM. 185 

eight steps or divisions : right views, right thoughts, 
right speech, right actions, right living, right ex- 
ertion, right recollection, right meditation. 

After these doctrines there follow ten command- 
ments, of which the first five apply to all people, 
and the rest chiefly to such as set themselves 
apart for a religious life. They are, not to kill 
not to steal ; not to commit adultery ; not to lie 
not to get drunk ; to abstain from late meals 
from public amusements ; from expensive dress 
from large beds ; and to accept neither gold nor 
silver. 

It is easy to see that the more difficult part of 
Buddha's teaching, which was largely caused by 
the love common to Hindus for knotty questions, 
and by his study of the systems of the Brahmans, 
might give rise to endless speculations among the 
learned few, but would never move or draw to 
itself the unlearned masses of men. 

The success of Buddhism was in this : It was a 
protest against the powers of the priests ; it to a 
large degree broke down caste by declaring that 
all men were equal, and by allowing any one 
desiring to live a holy life to become a priest. 



186 BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 

€ Not from birth/ said Buddha, i does one become 
a Vasala (slave), not from birth does one become 
a Brahman. By bad conduct does one become a 
Vasala, by good conduct does one become a 
Brahman.' It abolished sacrifices ; made it the 
duty of all men to honour their parents and care 
for their children, to be kind to the sick and poor 
and sorrowing, to forgive their enemies and return 
good for evil ; it spread a spirit of charity abroad 
which encompassed the lowest life as well as the 
highest, bidding men 

' Never to blend their pleasure or their pride 
With sorrow of the meanest thing that lives.' 

This was why the common people heard it gladly. 
They could not soar into the upper clouds, but 
needed some faith and hope by which to do the 
hard work of life ; and when life was over, they 
looked for a paradise where they would be de- 
livered from care and suffering. Towards such 
the millions of Buddhists look this day, for 

' Whatever crazy sorrow saith, 
No life that breathes with human breath 
Has ever truly longed for death. 



chap, ix.] BUDDHISM. 187 

"lis life, whereof our nerves are scant, 
Oh life, not death, for which we pant ; 
More life, and fuller, that we want/ 

The teaching of Buddha, like that of Christ, 
has been changed and overlaid with doctrines 
foreign to it by the nations who have accepted it, 
and the forms of worship adopted by Buddhists 
vary in the different countries, but consist mainly 
in adoration of the statues of Buddha and of his 
relics, he being, in their view, that which any 
man may become by practice of the four sublime 
truths and the commandments. In Buddhism as 
a philosophy the being of God is not denied ; it is 
ignored, nothing is said about it : as a religion, 
its millions of followers believe in many gods. 
We have seen how closely the teaching of Buddha's 
law of mercy and charity is like to that of Christ's, 
being in short the fruit of the loving nature of 
each of these holy men ; and another feature, 
hinted at above, is the likeness between certain 
rites of Buddhism and Christianity. When the 
Eoman Catholic missionaries first met the Buddhist 
monks they were shocked when they saw that 
their heads were shaven, that they knelt before 



BUDDHISM. [chap. ix. 



images, that they worshipped relics, wore strings 
of beads, used bells and holy water, and had 
confession of sin. They believed that the devil, 
as the father of all mischief and deceit, had 
tempted these men to dress themselves in the 
clothes of Catholics and mock their solemn prac- 
tices ; whereas it seems likely that there had been 
some connection in the past, the younger religion 
borrowing from the older. 

Of the strange mode by which the Tibetans, 
on the death of the Grand Lama, who is their 
high priest, and regarded as infallible, like the 
Pope, elect his successor, into whom they believe 
his soul passes, space forbids an account. Mon- 
asteries for men and nunneries for women still 
exist, and especially in Tibet, vast numbers of 
monks are found; while the huge and now deserted 
monasteries and temples cut in the solid rock, and 
of which hundreds exist in India, show how 
mightily a system, which had been thought to 
belong to Christianity only, had formed part of 
Buddhism two thousand years ago. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 

Although we are still in the East, we leave its 
gorgeous dazzlements behind, and once within the 
walls of China come amongst scenes where song 
gives place to prose and golden romance to sober 
fact ; where the people's faces, their houses, their 
junks and their hand-writing, seem made after 
one pattern. 

On the soil of this great country there is 
crowded nearly half the human race. The man- 
ners and customs of the Chinese are those of their 
ancestors hundreds of years ago. Empires have 
risen and fallen around them, but they remain the 
same, nor have the races that have broken through 
their Great Wall and forced rulers upon them 
altered their laws or their language. The mar- 
iner's compass ; printing ; gunpowder and other 
arts, were known to them long before they were in 
use in Europe. Theirs is a land where every- 



190 THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. [chap. x. 

thing seems topsy-turvy. The soldiers wear petti- 
coats, use fans and fight the enemy at night with 
lanterns ; the people have fireworks by daylight ; 
white is the colour used in mourning ; boats are 
drawn by men and carriages are moved by sails ; 
while visiting cards are four feet long and painted 
red ! In the high honour paid to learning the 
Chinese teach us a lesson. The lowest among 
them can rise to the highest offices in the state, 
these being given, not to the best-born, but to 
those who have passed with the greatest merit the 
public examinations ; so that knowledge is the 
road to power. 

The ancient inhabitants of China, like the races 
with whom they are thought to be allied, were 
worshippers of the powers of nature and of the 
spirits of their ancestors, and these still largely 
enter into the religions of China. There is a 
State worship kept up by the Emperor and his 
court, in which sacrifices are offered to the heaven 
and earth, to the spirits of sages, rulers and 
learned men ; also of mountains, fields and rivers ; 
while each household has its family spirits to 
whom honour and reverence are paid. And behind 



chap, x.] THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA, 191 

all this there looms a supreme power, lord of the 
sky, ' ancestor of all things/ who is however as 
vague a being to the Chinese as is Brahm to the 
Hindus. 

China has three national religions ; Buddhism, 
which was admitted as a religion of the State 
65 years after Christ, the Chinese name of Buddha 
being Fo ; Taoism ; and Confucianism. 

The three religions are often professed by the same 
person, and there is none of that bitter feeling 
between the believers in different creeds which 
exists so much among Christians, Muslims and 
others. This is, however, owing to the lack of 
earnestness ; for they who feel deeply concerning 
what they believe cannot be careless regarding 
what they think are the errors of others. 

Lao-tse, the founder of Taoism, lived between 
500 and 600 years before Christ, and was an 
altogether different man from Confucius. He 
was a thinker, not a worker, seeking to unravel 
those same problems which perplexed Buddha, and 
what there is in the Chinese belief of a spiritual 
kind may have been aided by the teaching of 
Lao-tse. Confucius is said to have visited him 



192 THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA, [chap. x. 

and confessed that he could not understand him. 
Taoism has become mixed up with magic and 
other senseless beliefs, and its priests are for the 
most part ignorant men, so that it has no great 
hold upon the Chinese. 

Their great teacher and lawgiver, whose 
' writings and life have given the law to Chinese 
thought/ is K'ung-Foo-Tse, ' the master K'ung,' 
whose name has been Latinized into Confucius. 
He is their patron saint ; his descendants are held 
in special honour ; the most famous temple in the 
empire is built over his grave, while hundreds of 
other temples to his memory abound, and 
thousands of animals are sacrificed on the two 
yearly festivals sacred to that memory. Each one 
of the thousands who compete in the great 
examinations must know the whole system of Con- 
fucius and commit his doctrines to heart. 

This man, who was reviled in life, but whose 
influence sways the hundreds of millions of 
China, was born 551 years before Christ, not 
far from the time when Cyrus became king of 
Persia and the Jews returned from Babylon, and a 
few years before the death of Buddha. He lost his 



chap, x.] THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 193 

father, who was an old man and an officer of 
state in the kingdom of Loo, now a Chinese pro- 
vince, when he was three years old ; but his 
mother trained him with tender care, and he is 
said to have shown from an early age great love 
for learning and for the laws and lore of his 
country. At the time when Confucius lived, 
China was divided into a number of petty king- 
doms whose rulers were ever quarrelling, and 
although he became engaged in various public 
situations of trust, the disorder of the state at 
last caused him to resign them, and he retired to 
another part of the country. He then continued 
the life of a public teacher, instructing men in the 
simple moral truths by which he sought to govern 
his own life. The purity of that life, and the 
example of veneration for the old laws which he 
set, gathered round him many grave and thought- 
ful men, who worked with him for the common 
good. He afterwards returned to Loo, and 
remaining for some years without office, became 
in his 50th year a minister of state, and great 
success attended his wise rule ; but at last the 
wild excesses of the court upturned his good laws, 



194 THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. [chap. x. 

and *he had to resign his place. Poverty and 
other ills came upon him, few heeded his words of 
wisdom, and after many wanderings, he returned 
to his native land a despised and poor man. He 
spent the remainder of his life in editing the 
sacred books of China, and in writing some 
additions to them, and passed away in the 
seventy-third year of his age. 

His system can scarcely be called a religion, 
and yet that is the best name for it, because it 
teaches men how to live. Four things he is 
said to have taught : learning, morals, devotion of 
soul and reverence. He counselled all to be 
sincere, just, loving, careful of duty to themselves 
and others, and observant of ancient laws and 
rites. He had nothing to say about God or 
another life. Here and there he speaks in vague 
words of \ heaven/ a power whose emblem is 
the sky, but not of One to whom praises should 
ascend, and towards Whom the love of children 
should be felt. This was not because Confucius 
was an unbeliever, for he, of all men, had rever- 
ence for the sacred, unknown power that underlies 
all things, but because his nature was so beauti- 



chap, x.] THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 195 

fully simple and sincere that he would not pretend 
to knowledge of that w T hich he felt was beyond 
human reach and thought. This was shown in 
his reply to a disciple who asked him concerning 
death. ( While you do not know life, how can 
you know about death ? ' 

His life was given to teaching a few great 
truths, obedience to which he believed would 
bring happiness to man. He says of himself: 
' At fifteen years, I had my mind bent on learn- 
ing. At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I had no 
doubts. At fifty, I knew the decrees of heaven. 
At sixty, everything I heard I easily understood. 
At seventy, the desires of my heart no longer 
transgressed the law.' 

The sacred books of China are called the 
Kings* and are five in number, containing treatises 
on morals, books of rites, poems and history. 
They are of great age, perhaps as old as the 
earliest hymns of the Rig- Veda, and are free from 
any impure thoughts. King means the warp 
threads of a web. The name is given as showing 
* See Note L. 



196 THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. [chap. x. 

that which is woven together; like the use of our 
word text, which comes from the Latin textum, 
' that which is woven.' 

These books, w T hich were deeply studied by 
Confucius, teach that there is one Supreme Being, 
everywhere present, all-seeing, who commands 
right deeds, pure thoughts and watchfulness over 
the tongue. ' For a blemish may be taken out of 
a diamond by carefully polishing it ; but if your 
words have the least blemish, there is no way to 
efface that.' ' Heaven penetrates to the bottom of 
our hearts, like light into a dark chamber. We 
must conform ourselves to it until we are like two 
instruments of music tuned to the same pitch. Our 
passions shut up the door of our souls against God.' 

Such are among the wise words of these most 
ancient books, restored by Confucius to their 
rightful place. I should like ample space to 
quote many of his own pithy sayings, which are 
given in the first of the four Shoo, meaning ivrit- 
ings or books, compiled by his disciples, but a few 
must suffice. 

1 The Master said, " Shall I teach you what knowledge is ? 
When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when 



chap, x.] THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 197 

you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it ; 
this is knowledge." ' 

1 To see what is right and not to do it is want of 
courage.' 

c Worship as though the Deity were present.' 

4 He who offends against Heaven has none to whom he can 
pray.' 

4 If my mind is not engaged in my worship, it is as though 
I worshipped not.' 

4 Coarse rice for food, water to drink, the bended arm for 
a pillow, — happiness may be enjoyed even with these ; but 
without virtue, both riches and honour seem to me like the 
passing cloud.' 

* Grieve not that men know not you ; grieve that you know 
not men.' 

1 A good man is serene ; a bad man always in fear.' 

i There may be fair words and an humble countenance 
when there is little virtue.' 

1 One of his disciples said,' " If you, Master, do not speak, 
what shall we, your disciples, have to read ? " The Master 
said, "Does Heaven speak? The four seasons pursue their 
courses, and all things are continually being produced ; but 
does Heaven say anything ? " ' 

6 In the Book of Poetry are three hundred pieces, but the 
design of them all may be embraced in that one sentence, 
" Have no depraved thoughts." ' (This reminds us of the say- 
ing of the later Jewish Rabbis that all the 613 precepts of 
the Law were summed up in the words, 4 The just shall live 
by his faith.') 

1 If a man in the morning hear the right way, he may die 
in the evening without regret.' 

4 Tsze-kung said, " What I do not wish men to do to me, 



198 THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. [chap. x. 

I also wish not to do to men." The Master said, " You have 
not attained to that." ' 

Such is the power of words, that those uttered 
by this intensely earnest man, whose work was 
ended only by death, have kept alive throughout 
the vast empire of China a reverence for the past 
and a sense of duty to the present which have 
made the Chinese the most orderly and moral 
people in the world. But to ' the mighty hopes 
that make us men/ they are strangers. Theirs is 
a dull, plodding life, and one can hardly say of 
them what Pope wrote of the Indian : 

( To be, contents his natural desire, 
He asks no angePs wing, no seraph's fire/ 

for their hold on life is slender, and it is a great 
matter with them to have their coffins ready. 
They, however, speak of the dead as ' ascended to 
the sky/ and have a great horror of being 
beheaded, in the belief that there can be no here- 
after for a headless trunk. 

It is only of late years, and that not by the 
best means, that parts of their vast empire have 
been entered by foreigners ; but we must hope 



chap, x.] THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 199 

that when the religion of Christ becomes known 
among them they will feel that it lends just that 
motive and aim to the life of man which their 
religions lack, and which is needed to make life 
complete. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE SEMITIC NATIONS. 

All that has been said about the common descent of 
the Aryan or Indo-European nations applies to the 
Semitic nations. Their languages are shown to 
be even more closely related than the Aryan 
languages and afford clear proof of a time when 
the ancestors of the Semitic peoples lived together, 
speaking the same tongue and worshipping the 
same gods. When further research is made we 
may look for as vivid a picture of old Semitic life 
as that which we have of old Aryan manners 
and customs. 

Under the name Semitic or Shemitic, meaning 
people descended from Shem, one of the sons of 
Noah (a term which by no means truly describes 
them), there are included the Jews and other 
Syrian tribes, the Arabs, Assyrians, Babylonians, 
Phoenicians and Carthaginians. Of the home 
from which the old Semitic races migrated we 
cannot speak with certainty ; it may have been in 



chap, xl] THE SEMITIC NATIONS. 201 

the country watered by the rivers Euphrates and 
Tigris, or in some part of Arabia. 

These nations have filled an important place in 
human history, but they have never spread them- 
selves over the earth as have the Aryans. They 
have been great in religion, in science and in 
commerce, the cities which they founded, Jeru- 
salem, Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, and their settle- 
ments in Carthage and Spain, reminding us what 
a splendid and deathless story their records tell. 

In the ancient worship of the Semitic races be- 
fore they separated, there are clear traces that the 
names of their chief gods had been fixed. 

These names mostly express moral qualities ; 
that is, instead of a god of fire, or storm, or sky, 
we have the Strong, the Exalted, the Lord, the King, 
etc. One of the highest and oldest names was El, 
meaning strong. ( It occurs in the Babylonian 
inscriptions as Ilu, God; and in the very name of 
Bab-il, the gate or temple of II. We have it in 
Beth-el, the house of God, and in many other 
names. The same El was worshipped at Byblus 
by the Phoenicians and was called there 'the son of 
heaven and earth.' Eloah is the same word as the 



202 THE SEMITIC NATIONS. [chap. xi. 

Arabic Ildh, God : Ildh, without the article, means 
a god in general ; with the article Al-Ildh or Allah, 
it becomes the name of the God of Moham- 
mad, as it was the name of the God of Abraham 
and of Moses.' Another famous name is Baal or Bel, 
the lord. He was not only a supreme god among 
the Assyrians, Babylonians and Phoenicians, but 
was a frequent object of worship by the Jews. 

Then we have the Hebrew Melech, king, which 
is the Moloch of the Phoenicians, to whom children 
were sacrificed by their own parents, a horrible 
practice which they carried with them to Carthage 
and other places. 

These and other names were common to the 
undivided Semitic people, but it is thought that 
the name Jah, Jahveh or Jehovah, was used by 
the Jews only. Be this as it may, ' Hebrew, 
Syriac and Arabic point to a common source as 
much as Sanskrit, Greek and Latin/ 

But the ancient history of the mighty empires 
of the East does not form part of my subject, and 
manuals of Jewish history especially are so num- 
erous that it is needless to give what must be, at 
the best, only a meagre account. 



chap, xi.] THE SEMITIC NATIONS. 203 

We must ever feel the deepest interest in the 
Jews, because while Aryan blood flows in our veins, 
our Christian religion has come from a Semitic 
race. The long line of noble men to whom the 
Jewish nation has given birth from the time of its 
founder Abraham to the age when Jesus Christ 
and his apostles lived ; the fearless witness which 
since the days of its captivity it has borne to the 
lofty truth that ' there is One God and none other 
but He/ must ever give to its scattered people 
a large place in our veneration and our love. 
Only it must be no blind, but a pure and true 
veneration, born of careful study of all that they 
have been and of all that they have done. We 
must treat their history as we treat every other 
history, and not think that they could be dearer 
to God than those who, like the Persian Aryans, 
forsook Him less to worship many gods. 

Of the Semitic religions those that concern us 
in the present day are only the Jewish and the 
Mohammadan, of which latter some account will 
now follow. 



CHAPTER XII. 

MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISlXm. 

This religion, which is the guide in life and the 
support in death of one hundred and fifty millions 
of our fellow creatures ; which, like Christianity, has 
its missionaries scattered over the globe, and offers 
itself as a faith needed by all men; which for 
hundreds of years has had firm hold upon the 
sacred places of Palestine so dear to Jew and 
Christian, is worth careful study. Isl&m, which 
is its correct name, comes from a word meaning 
in the first instance ' to be at rest, to have done 
one's duty, to be at perfect peace/ and is commonly 
held to mean f submission to the will and com- 
mandments of God.' 

Muslim, the name given to its believers (spelt 
also Moslem, Muslem, &c), comes from Islam, 
and means ( a righteous man.' 

While we know very little about the lives of 
the founders of some religions already sketched, 



chap, xil] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 205 

and that little so mixed up with fable and legend 
as to make it hard work to sift the false from the 
true, nearly all the facts of Mohammad's life are 
well known to us, and are supported by the 
witness of thousands who knew him for many 
years. 

And the value of Islam, the youngest of the 
great religions, is, that we are able to see how its 
first simple form became overlaid with legend and 
foolish superstition, and thus learn how, in like 
manner, myth and fable have grown around more 
ancient religions. 

For example : although Mohammad came into 
the world like other children, wonderful things 
were said to have taken place at his birth ; one 
legend being that angels took him from the arms 
of his nurse, drew his heart from his bosom, 
and then squeezed from it the black drop of sin 
which is in every child of Adam. 

He never claimed to be a perfect man ; he did 
not pretend to foretell events or to work miracles. 
He said, 'My miracle is the Koran, which shall 
remain for ever/ and he pointed to those great 
signs in heaven and earth, greater than the 



206 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. XII. 

wonders said to have been wrought by men, — the 
sun, and moon, and stars ; the day and the night ; 
the mountains which keep the earth steady (an 
old Arab notion) ; the water that slakes man's 
thirst and the cattle which change the grass into 
milk, as parts of one great, never-ceasing miracle. 
In spite of all this, his followers said of him, 
while he was yet living, that he worked wonders, 
and they believed the golden vision, hinted at in 
the Koran (concerning which Mohammadan 
tradition tells how, clothed in robe and turban of 
light, he rode by night upon the lightning to 
Jerusalem, and then ascending to heaven, passed 
through the dwellings of the prophets into the 
presence of the Unseen, where stillness was, and 
nothing heard, e except the silent sound of the 
reed wherewith the decrees of God are written on 
the tablets of fate '), to have been a real event, 
although Mohammad said over and over again that 
it was but a dream. When he died, the people 
would not believe it ; the places where he had 
trod became to them the holiest spots on earth, 
and the words which he had spoken, the very 
words of God. Thus it has been with other 



chap, xii.] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 207 

prophets of the Most High. They have been too 
great for smaller men to understand, have towered 
too high for them to measure, and when they 
have passed away, have been looked upon as gods 
that ' have come down in the likeness of men.' 

Mohammad has suffered much both from friend 
and foe. The former, who asked him to do some- 
thing to prove his high mission, as the Jews asked 
Jesus for a sign, willingly believed anything they 
were told of him ; the latter thought that nothing 
too vile or bad could be said of him. A story 
was invented that he had trained a dove to pick 
peas from his ear, so that it might be taken for an 
angel bringing him messages from God ! Martin 
Luther called him ' a horrid devil/ and to this day 
most Christians believe that he was a shameless 
impostor. Mohammad was a man, and therefore 
not free from sin. Although that sin stained the 
later years of his life, he was no cheat or false 
prophet, but from the day when his strong soul 
burst the bonds of forty years' silence, a preacher 
of the eternal truth ; ' La Ellah Ellala/ ' There is 
no god but God.' 

' By their fruits ye shall know them.' A 



208 MOIIAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. xii. 

religion which has fed the heart-hunger of millions of 
men for nigh 1300 years cannot have been cradled 
in fraud. It did not grow without a struggle, for 
if stones and sneers could have killed it, it would 
have died during Mohammad's life-time. 

Mohammad was born at Mekkeh, or, as it 
is usually spelt, Mecca, in Arabia, 571 years 
after Christ. His father, who died before his 
birth, was poor, but of a noble tribe, the Koreish, 
who were guardians of the famous sacred stone of 
the Kaabah. As he lost his mother when he was. 
six years old, he was left to the care- of relatives. 
He was a sickly boy, subject to fits, which troubled 
him in after years ; but he had to begin work, 
tending flocks, at an early age. He was of a 
nature given to silence and fondness for being 
alone, caring to have for company only his own 
thoughts and nature. The grim, lonely desert, 
and the stars, that shine their brightest in the 
East, fed his sense of wonder and opened the ear 
of his soul to any voice that spake the meaning of 
all that he saw. He could neither read nor write, 
and so the more used eye and ear, gathering much 



chap, xii.] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 209 

knowledge of men and things from journeys with 
his uncle into Syria. Although sweet-natured, 
faithful and truthful, he was, perhaps owing to 
the fits which distressed him, often cast down and 
gloomy ; but in his bright moods he would enter 
with zest into the glad, free life of children, play 
with them, and tell them the gorgeous tales of 
which the East has so rich a store. He lived a 
most simple life ; his dress and food were of the 
plainest ; he mended his own clothes ; waited upon 
himself; and was ever ready to share his meal 
with the poor. When he was twenty-four years 
old, he entered the service of a rich widow, who 
afterwards became his wife and bore him children. 
Now we come to the great event of his life. 
As he neared middle age, his gloom deepened, and 
he more and more fled from men. It had been 
his custom for years to spend in prayer and medi- 
tation the sacred month during which the Arab 
tribes laid down their weapons, and in his fortieth 
year he retired to a small cave on Mount Hira, 
a huge barren rock standing by itself in the 
desert, some three miles from Mecca. 

Dreams and visions, strange sights and sounds, 
10 



210 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. xii. 

as he verily believed, came to him there, and one 
night a voice called to him, ' Cry, in the name of 
thy Lord/ and bade him spread the true religion 
among men by writing. 

' Such light had come, as it could, to illumine 
the darkness of this wild Arab soul. A confused, 
dazzling splendour, as of life and heaven, in the 
great darkness which threatened to be death : he 
called it revelation and (said it was the voice of) 
the angel Gabriel, — who of us yet can know what 
to call it ? It is the " inspiration of the 
Almighty" that giveth us understanding/ He 
went home tremblingly and told his wife, who at 
once hailed him as the prophet of the nation. 

The Arabs are to-day what they were hundreds 
of years ago ; lovers of freedom, temperate, good- 
hearted ; but withal crafty, revengeful, dishonest. 
They are very fond of music and poetry, and the 
rise of a poet in any tribe is a matter for great 
rejoicing. Not much is known about their religion 
in the days of ' Ignorance/ as they call the time 
before Islam, for until Mohammad came their 
history is almost a blank. They believed in many 



chap, xil] MOHAMMAD ANISM, OR ISLAM. 211 

gods and worshipped sun, moon, trees and stones, 
the most famous among the last being the Black 
stone of the Kaaba, round which 365 idols were 
placed. This stone, which travellers tell us is an 
aerolite (or air-stone, as the word means, which 
has fallen from space upon the earth), is said to 
have been one of the precious stones of Paradise 
and to have dropped to the earth with Adam ; 
once white, it has become black through the 
kisses of sinful men or through the silent tears 
which it has shed for their sins. Arab legend 
also tells that the building w T hich encloses it was 
erected by Abraham and Ishmael. To the place 
where it stands the Muslims all over the w r orld 
turn five times every day in prayer to God. 

Some of the Arab tribes had strange notions 
about a future state. They would tie a camel to 
a mans tomb and leave it without food. If it got 
away the man was lost for ever ; but if not, he 
would find it there at the day of judgment and 
could mount on it to Paradise. 

There had been settlements of Jews amoM the 
Arabs from a very early period, and their religion 
had been embraced by a few. At the time when 



212 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. xii. 

Mohammad appeared, there were also dotted here 
and there societies of Jews and Christian sects who 
had sought refuge in the pathless desert from the 
cruel power of Rome. But the Christians who 
had come thither wasted their strength in vain 
and foolish wrangling. The soul of Christianity, 
the pure, sweet spirit which they might have kept 
by learning of Christ, had fled from their midst, 
and they were quarreling with each other about 
the structure of the dead and worthless body in 
which that soul had dwelt. Still earlier than any 
of these there had come sun-worshippers from 
Chaldea and Zoroastrians from Persia. 

From this we may gather what strangely varied 
beliefs found a home in Arabia, and also see how 
the many Jewish and Christian ideas became 
mingled with Islam. 

There had risen before Mohammad men who 
preached against the old pagan creeds, but they 
were only forerunners of this mightier prophet 
who was nursing his soul in secret, who 

' Yet should bring some worthy thing for waiting souls to see, 
Some sacred word that he had heard their light and life to be.' 



chag. xii.] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 213 

Mohammad did not claim to preach a new 
faith, but- the 'religion of Abraham/ whom he said 
'was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but pious and 
righteous and no idolater/ and whom # he places 
♦ among the six chief prophets chosen by God to 
make known His truth. Mohammad said that 
these were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus 
and himself. He made known an Almighty and 
Allwise God, Who had spoken through these 
prophets, and to the lasting honour of Mohammad 
he spake no slighting word of those who came be- 
fore him. Although his knowledge of Christ was 
obtained from some childish and false gospels 
which have long since been treated by Christians 
as "worthless, and although he knew nothing of 
Christ's holy life and beautiful teaching as given 
in the Four Gospels, he paid him great honour 
and believed that he worked miracles. 

Muslims have not treated Christ as we have 
treated Mohammad, for the devout among them 
never utter his name without adding the touch- 
ing words, 'on whom be peace/ and in the great 
mosque at El Medineh or Medina there is a grave 
kept for him by the side of the prophet, it being 



214 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. xii. 

a Muslim belief that Christ will one day return 
to earth to establish everywhere the religion of 
Mohammad, who will appear shortly before the day 
of judgment. Mohammad borrowed from the re- 
ligion of the Jews, of which he had only a hear- 
say knowledge, the belief in good and bad angels, 
some of the laws relating to marriage, fasting, &c, 
and there were certain customs so closely inter- 
twined with the pagan faith of his countrymen 
that he wisely sought not to remove some of them, 
but to purify them. He abolished the frightful 
practice of killing female children and made the 
family tie more respected, although to this day 
its looseness is a great blot upon Islam. He 
permitted the worship of the Kaaba stone, 
and the pilgrimages thereto, to be continued. 
In like manner the Roman Catholic mis- 
sionaries, when they came to Northern Europe, 
made use of the best of what they found in 
the old Teutonic religion and worked it into 
their own. Where sacred trees had stood, they 
raised crosses ; where holy wells had been dug 
and the babbling spring was a deity, they built 
churches and abbeys ; where love and piety had 



chap, xii.] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 215 

named flower and insect after the ' lady ' Freyja, 
goddess of plenty, they put the Virgin Mary in 
her stead. The goddess Hel, who in a realm of 
bitter cold received the souls of those who died of 
old age or disease (for only to those who died in 
battle was there given endless mirth and feasting 
in Valhalla with the Alfadir, Odin) was changed 
from a person to a place where heat, not cold, is 
the torment. In the bleak North, life without 
fire is dreary, which explains why Hel was pictured 
as ruling in a cold region. 

But we must return to Mohammad, not forget- 
ting to say that Mecca had been a place of very 
great note long before his time, the Arabs having 
a tradition that it was the birthplace of their 
tribes. Near to the Kaaba, there is the well 
Zemzem, said to be fed by the spring that opened 
before Hagar's eyes when Ishmael was a-nigh 
dead with thirst, and when, in a mother's mad 
despair, she cast him from her that she might 
not see him die. The legend further relates that 
they settled on the spot with a tribe who were 
passing by, and thus arose the sacred city of Mecca. 

Mohammad counselled men to live a good life, 



2i6 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. xii. 

and to strive after the mercy of God by fasting, 
charity, and prayer, which he called 'the key of 
paradise.' 

This is one among many passages in the Koran 
counselling men to prayer : 

t Observe prayer at sunset, till the first darkening of the 
night, and the daybreak reading — for the daybreak reading 
hath its witnesses. 

4 And watch unto it in the night . . . and say, " 
my Lord, cause me to enter (Mecca) with a perfect entry, 
and to come forth with a perfect forthcoming, and give me 
from thy presence a helping power." ' 

There is preserved a sermon on charity, said to 
have been preached by Mohammad, which is so 
beautiful that it deserves a place beside the 
apostle Paul's sweet words in 1 Corinthians xiii., 
while in reading it, we think of that touching 
saying by Jesus as to the Eye that sees with 
approval a gift to the thirsty, although that gift 
be but ' a cup of cold water.' 

" When God made the earth, it shook to and fro till He 
put mountains on it to keep it firm. Then the angels 
asked, u God, is there anything in Thy creation stronger 
than these mountains ? '' And God replied, u Iron is stronger 
than the mountains, for it breaks them." " And is there 
anything in Thy creation stronger than iron ? " " Yes, fire 



chap, xil] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 217 

is stronger than iron, for it melts it." kt Is there anything 
stronger than fire?" " Yes, water, for it quenches fire." 
" Is there anything stronger than water ? " " Yes, wind, for 
it puts water in motion." " our Sustainer, is there anything 
in thy creation stronger than wind?" u Yes, a good man 
giving alms ; if he give it with his right hand and conceal it 
from his left, he overcomes all things. Every good act is 
charity ; your smiling in your brother's face ; your putting a 
wanderer in the right road ; your giving water to the thirsty 
is charity ; exhortation to another to do right is charity. A 
man's true wealth hereafter is the good he has done in this 
world to his fellow-men. When he dies, people will ask, 
What property has he left behind him ? But the angels will 
ask, What good deeds has he sent before him ? " ' 

Mohammad commanded his followers to make 
no image of any living thing, to show mercy to 
the weak and orphaned, and kindness to brutes ; 
to abstain from gambling, smoking tobacco and 
the use of strong drink. 

The great truth which he strove to make real 
to them was that God is one, that, as the Koran 
says, ' they surely are infidels who say that God 
is the third of three, for there is no God but one 
God/ 

To return to the story of his life. It says very 
much for the pure motives that swayed him that 
his own nearest friends were the first to believe 



218 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. XII. 

in him. Others called him fool, mad poet, star- 
gazer, but he held on his way, although for some 
time with scant success, his followers being, up to 
the fourth year of his mission, few and humble. 
It is said that he was one day talking with a rich 
man whom he wished to convert, when a poor 
blind man came up and asked to be taught by 
Mohammad, who, cross at being interrupted, spoke 
roughly to him. But his conscience quickly 
smote him for his harshness, and the next day's 
Revelation reproved him. It is thus given in the 
Koran. 

4 He frowned, and he turned his back, 
Because the blind man came to him ! 
But what assured thee that he would not 
Be cleansed by the Faith, 
Or be warned and the warning profit him ? 
As to him who is wealthy, 
To him thou wast all attention ; 
Yet is it not thy concern if he be not cleansed : 
But as to him who cometh to thee in earnest, 
And full of fears — him dost thou neglect.' 

Mohammad afterwards sought the man, saying, 
' He is thrice welcome on whose account my Lord 
hath reprimanded me.' 



chap, xii.] MOHAMMA DANISM, OR ISLAM. 219 

He began to teach abroad in Mecca and other 
places, but the attacks on him grew so bitter, that 
he had to leave the city. On his return his wife 
died. She was a true aud noble-natured woman 
and her memory is held in deep reverence, visits 
being paid to her tomb every Friday. To add to 
Mohammad's troubles, poverty came upon him, and 
a plot being laid to kill him, be had to leave 
Mecca a second time, and started for Medina, 
where some of his converts lived. On his way 
thither he and a friend hid in a cave, over the 
mouth of which a spider spun its web as they lay 
inside. When their pursuers came to the cave 
they felt sure, og seeing the web, that Mohammad 
was not there. ' We are but two/ said his 
friend, full of fear. ' There is a third/ replied 
Mohammad, l it is God Himself.' 

The Muslims date their years from the prophet's 
flight to Medina, just as we date history from the 
birth of Jesus Christ. On reaching that city, all 
was changed. A glad welcome greeted Mohammad 
and he at once became ruler and lawgiver. 

But he ceased to be only the preacher of a 
creed beautiful and simple, and became a warrior. 



220 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. xii. 

He was angered against those who had refused to 
believe in him and, since he could not persuade 
them, he sought to compel them. So he offered 
idolaters and Jews either death or conversion 
to Islam, and urged his followers to battle by pro- 
mising immediate entrance into Paradise to those 
who fell in the fight. They flung themselves with- 
out fear into the contest, for to them it was God's 
battle against the unfaithful, and Islam ! His will 
be done. 

Mohammad's anger was hottest against the 
Jews. He had striven hard to win them to his 
side. He admitted their religion to be divine ; he 
adopted many of their rites an^ doctrines and 
made Jerusalem the Kiblah or place toward which 
men were to turn in daily prayer. But they 
ridiculed him and cut him to the quick with 
satire and sneer, so that to the day of his death 
he was their bitter foe. The Sabbath was 
changed to Friday, which was the day when the 
Arabs were used to meet in assembly, and Muslims 
were commanded to turn their faces toward 
Mecca. After wars against Arabs, Jews and 
Christians, in the greater number of which Moham- 



chap, xil] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 221 

mad was the victor, he had conquered the whole 
of Arabia and extended his rule to other parts. 
So great had his power become that he sent 
messages to kings and princes demanding that 
they would submit to Islam. 

Towards the tenth year after his flight, he 
went on his last pilgrimage to Mecca at the head 
of 40,000 Muslims. On his return to Medina, 
feeling death near, he dwelt near the mosque that 
he might take part as long as he could in 
the public prayers. After calling the people to- 
gether he asked them, as did Samuel when 
he bade farewell to the children of Israel, 'whether 
he had wronged anyone or whether he owed 
aught to anyone ' and then after reading some 
verses from the Koran, went home to die. He 
passed away in his sixty-second year amidst the 
deep grief of the people, and a great tumult 
arose at the news, for many thought him 
immortal. 

He was a great and true man, and the religion 
which he set forth met the needs of men in the 
East as no other religion did in that day, nor is it 
likely that it will ever cease its hold upon men or 



222 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. xii. 

that Mohammad will give place to any other 
prophet. 

We must no more blame him for many of the sad 
errors and vices mixed up with Islam than we should 
blame Jesus for the evils which have crept into 
Christianity. Even for the wars that he waged he 
may have found excuse in the history of the Jews. 
The Old Testament is reddened, in its books of 
their history, with the story of the shameful 
cruelty of which they were guilty, of tender 
children slaughtered, of whole cities put to the 
edge of the sword, and all this butchery done, as 
they would have us believe, in the name and at 
the command of the Lord, of Whom their ideas 
were so gross that they more than once offered 
human sacrifices to Him. And we all know what 
terrible wars and massacres have taken place in 
the name of our Christian religion, and how but a 
very few years ago it was held by many Christians 
that man could own and buy and sell his fellow- 
man. 

Brighter and better days have come since then, 
and Mohammadans, like Christians, do not now 
seek to spread their faith by violence and blood- 



chap, xii.] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 223 

shed. I have dwelt upon this because it is need- 
ful to see how little of the grosser part of each 
religion belongs, in most cases, to the idea of its 
founder. 

In addition to what has been said about Islam, 
Muslims believe that God in different ages made 
known His will to prophets in scriptures, of which 
all but four are lost ; the Pentateuch (or first five 
books of the Bible), the Psalms, the Gospel, and 
the Koran ; the Koran only being perfect. Also 
that there will be, after many strange events, a 
resurrection and a final judgment, when the souls 
of both the good and bad will have to pass over a 
bridge laid across hell, finer than a hair and 
sharper than a sword. The souls of the good will 
pass quickly across it, but the wicked will fall into 
hell headlong. The idea of heaven is that of a 
place of gross delights ; while a never-ending hell 
will be the fate of all non-believers. 

The success of Islam was great. Not 100 
years after the death of the prophet, it had con- 
verted half the then known world, and its green 
flag waved from China to Spain. Christianity 
gave way before it, and has never regained some 



224 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. XII. 

of the ground then lost, while at this day we see 
Islam making marked progress in Africa and else- 
where. Travellers tell us that the gain is great 
when a tribe casts away its idols and embraces 
Islam. Filth and drunkenness flee away, and the 
state of the people is bettered in a high degree. 

When we hear good-meaning people lament 
that negroes should become Mohammadans, let us 
remember that this was not the feeling of Jesus 
when his disciples told him that they had for- 
bidden a man who was casting out demons in his 
name. i And Jesus said, Forbid him not : for he 
that is not against us is for us.' And this, I am 
sure, he would say to-day of the Mohammadan 
missionaries, if he were amongst us. 

Along the northern coasts of Africa and nearly 
to the equator, from Turkey to within the borders 
of China, and among the larger islands of the East, 
the faith of Islam spreads, divided into sects, and 
numbers millions who offer to Allah their five-fold 
daily prayer. From every mosque the blind mueddin 
or crier proclaims at daybreak ; ' There is no God 
but God ; Mohammad is His prophet. Prayer is 
better than sleep ; come to prayer/ and then each 



chap, xii.] MOHAMMAD ANISM, OR ISLAM. 225 

pious Muslim falls facewards to the holy city 
Mecca. 

I should add that the wars of Islam did not 
leave waste and ruin in their path, but that the 
Arabs, when they came to Europe, alone held aloft 
the light of learning, and in the once famous 
schools of Spain, taught ' philosophy, medicine, 
astronomy, and the golden art of song/ The 
Arabic words used in science — algebra, almanack, 
alcohol, and others, together with many names of 
stars, remain among us as proofs of what Arabia 
has given to Europe. 

The Mohammadan Bible is the Kuran or 
Koran. Al-Kovan or The Reading (as we 
say ; The Bible) contains the entire code of 
Islam ; that is, it is not a book of religious 
precepts merely, but it governs all that a Muslim 
does. 

I shall not waste limited space in giving the 
absurd story which the Muslims tell about their 
Koran, but briefly speak of its contents. It is 
entirely the work of Mohammad, and is made up 
of revelations w r hich he believed came to him from 



226 MOHAMMAD ANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. XII. 

the time of his sojourn on Mount Hira. It is 
regarded not only as inspired every word, but as 
uncreated and eternal. It consists of 1 14 Surahs 
or chapters, which were dictated by Mohammad 
to a scribe, and the copies thus made were thrown 
into a box. A year after Mohammad's death, such 
portions as remained were collected 'from date- 
leaves, tablets of white stone, bones, parchment- 
leaves/ and memories of men, and copied without 
order of time or subject, the longest chapters being 
put first. 

The titles of the chapters are taken from some 
chief matter in them, but are mostly unmeaning, 
affording no clue to the contents, as for example, 
'The Cow;' 'Thunder;' 'The Fig;' 'The Ele- 
phant.' Each begins with the words, 'In the 
name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,' 
and also tells where it was revealed to Mohammad. 

The Koran is written in the purest and most 
elegant Arabic, and suffers much by translation. 
Teaching the oneness of God, it is largely made 
up of stories, legends, laws and counsels which 
show how much use Mohammad made of all 
that he had heard of Jewish history and lore. 



chap, xii.] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 227 

Much of it, as we read it, seems utterly un- 
meaning, other parts of it move us by the beauty 
of their desert songs of God's majesty and purity. 

The Muslims do not touch it with unwashed 
hands, and never hold it below the girdle round 
their waist, while to them nothing is more hate- 
ful than to see it in the hands of an unbeliever. 

They regard this short chapter as equal to one- 
third of the whole book in value : 

1 Say there is one God alone — 
God the eternal ; 

He begetteth not and He is not begotten, 
And there is none like unto him.' 

I have marked many Surahs with the view of 
quoting from them, but can give only three or 
four specimens. 

This Surah, named 'the folding up/ thus de- 
scribes the last day : 

4 When the sun shall be folded up, 
And when the stars shall fall, 
And when the mountains shall be set in motion, 
And when the she-camels with young shall be neglected, 
And when the wild beasts shall be huddled together, 
And when the seas shall boil, 
And when the souls shall be joined again to their bodies, 



228 MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM, [chap. XII. 

And when the leaves of the Book shall be unrolled, 

And when the heavens shall be stripped away like a skin, 

And when hell shall be made to blaze, 

And when paradise shall be brought near, 

Every soul shall know what it has done/ 

At the end of another Surah, and one of the latest 
in point of time, this fine passage occurs : 

■ God ! there is no God but He, the living, the Eternal. 
Slumber doth not overtake Him, neither sleep ; to Him be- 
longeth all that is in heaven and earth. Who is he that can 
plead with Him but by His own permission ? He knoweth 
that which is past, and that which is to come unto them, 
and they shall not comprehend anything of His knowledge 
but so far as he pleaseth. His throne is extended over heaven 
and earth, and the upholding of both is no burden unto Him. 
He is the Lofty and Great/ 

Again : 

1 It is God who hath ordained the night for your rest, and 
the day to give you light: verily God is rich in bounties to 
most men ; but most men render not the tribute of thanks. 

' This is God your Lord, Creator of all things ; no god is 
there but He : why then do ye turn away from Him ? 

Again : 

' my son ! observe prayer, and enjoin the right and for- 
bid the wrong, and be patient under whatever shall betide 
thee : for this is a bounden duty. And distort not thy face 



chap, xii.] MOHAMMADANISM, OR ISLAM. 229 

at men ; nor walk thou loftily on the earth ; for God loveth 
no arrogant vain-glorious one. 

4 But let thy pace be middling ; and lower thy voice ; for 
the least pleasing of voices is surely the voice of asses/ 

And as a last quotation : 

* There is no piety in turning your faces towards the east 
or the west, but he is pious who believeth in God, and the 
last day, and the angels, and the scriptures, and the prophets ; 
who for the love of God disburseth his wealth to his kindred, 
and to the orphans, and to the needy, and the wayfarer, and 
those who ask, and for ransoming; who observeth prayer, 
and payeth the legal alms, and who is of those who are faith- 
ful to their engagements when they have engaged in them, 
and patient under ills and hardships, and in time of trouble ; 
these are they who are just, and these are they who fear the 
Lord.' 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 

In the remarks which were made on the right 
use of legends of the past, I promised to show 
you why the Bible should be read as we read 
other books. It is a common notion that the 
Bible has to be treated in some different way ; 
and owing to that chiefly, it is/ although one of 
the most read, yet the most misread of books and 
the least understood. The care which has to be 
applied, the free, full use of the powers of the 
mind which has to be made to enable us to get at 
the meaning of any book, is often most strangely 
withheld by people when reading the Bible. 

The fact has already come before you that there 
are several book-religions in the world, and this 
will have caused you to ask in what way the 
book on which our Christian religion is founded 
differs from the books on which other religions 
are founded. For it is clear that what Christians 



chap, xiii.] ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 231 

believe concerning the Bible, namely, that it is 
the work of men specially helped by God, Who 
made use of them to reveal truths needful for us 
to know and which none of us could ever have 
found out for himself, and that it is free from the 
errors and defects which everv other book con- 
tains ; is believed in a still more intense degree by 
the Brahmans concerning the Veda, by the Mus- 
lims concerning the Koran, and so on. 

The knowledge of this renders it needful for 
us to enquire whether our belief is ill or well 
grounded, whether we have surer proof of its truth 
than the Brahman has of his, for to neglect this 
is to confess that we shrink from comparing the 
Bible with the Veda, fearful lest it might suffer 
thereby, and the grand truths which it contains 
become less dear to us. 

There are plenty of books within reach which 
give an account of the contents of the Bible, of 
the order in which the books which compose it 
are believed to have been written, of the supposed 
dates and places, of the names of the authors, and 
like matters relating to its wonderful history. All 
these may here be passed by and give place to a 



232 ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE, [chap. xiii. 

few simple facts which are more or less known, 
but which are much overlooked, and upon which all 
proof as to the value of the Bible must ever rest. 

The first of these is that the Bible was pro- 
duced like every book ; men wrote it. It is 
made up of a number of works of the most 
varied kind ; history, poem, proverb, prophecy, 
epistle; all written by learned or unlearned 
men, many of them unknown to one an- 
other, since they lived in different lands and 
centuries apart ; each as he wrote his history or 
poured forth his song little thinking that it would 
form part of a book which has been precious to 
millions of men for hundreds of years, which 
' goes equally to the cottage of the plain man and 
the palace of the king ; which is woven into the 
literature of the scholar and colours the talk of 
the street ; which mingles in all the grief and 
cheerfulness of life ; which blesses us when we are 
born ; gives names to half Christendom ; rejoices 
with us ; has sympathy for our mourning ; ' a 
book, every portion of which, strange to say, has 
been regarded as of equal value; whether it be the 
Book of Esther or the Epistle to the Romans. 



chap, xiii.] ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 233 

And not only did men write it ; men also col- 
lected its books together. The books of the Old 
Testament were gathered together by the Jews, 
when or by whom among them is not known. 
That ancient people guarded them with jealous 
care, using all pains to prevent errors entering 
into the copies which were made, every verse and 
letter being counted. 

The books of the New Testament were chosen 
from many others and assumed their present form 
about the end of the second century after Christ, 
but men and churches have differed much and 
still differ as to which books should be left out 
and which admitted. 

Not only did men write the several books of the 
Bible and collect them into one volume : men also 
translated them into our own and other languages, 
doing, in the case of our translation, a great and 
noble work, filled with the richness, simplicity and 
power of our sweet mother-tongue, before cramped 
and stilted words of Latin birth were brought into 
it. But grand and lasting as their workmanship 
was, our translators made many mistakes, some of 
them wilful ones, (as, for example, when, in their 
11 



234 ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE, [chap. xiii. 

rarely printed ' Preface to the Reader/ they say 
that they have made use of certain words by the 
express command of the king), which a body of 
learned men of our day are now busily employed 
in correcting. Then the division of the books of 
Scripture into chapters and verses, some of these, 
as where Genesis ii. 1-3 is severed from Genesis i., 
being wrong ; and the headings to the chapters, 
some of which give a false idea of their contents, 
was each the work of men. The words printed 
in italics are not in the manuscripts which were 
translated, but were added by our translators to 
complete the sense, although in some cases they 
obscure it. 

Now no one asserts that the men who collected 
the books together were inspired by God to do it, 
so that they could not by any means leave out 
the right books and put in the wrong books, nor 
that the men who translated the Bible were 
inspired, so that they could not give a wrong 
meaning to the Greek or Hebrew in turning it 
into our own or any other tongue. We must 
therefore put these on one side and pass to the 
men who wrote the books, and who, it is 



chap. XIII.] ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 235 

commonly believed, were inspired by God to do it, 
and preserved from all error in their work. 

Various opinions are held about the nature and 
extent of this inspiration, some few believing that 
every word, every syllable and every letter is the 
direct utterance of God ; others, that the writers 
were kept from error when revealing His will, but 
not when speaking upon matters of history, science, 
&c. All debate about this is in vain, because if 
any manuscripts ever existed, which were the 
work of men thus helped, we have no true copies 
of them, since the oldest manuscripts differ in 
important details. And even if the very handi- 
work of each writer could be found, the belief that 
he was inspired would in no way help us to under- 
stand what he had written. But it is said the 
Bible writers claim to speak the very words of 
God, and it is this which makes it so needful for 
us to listen to them with obedient heart and trust- 
ful soul. Of course such a claim, like the claims 
of certain men in past and present days to power 
to forgive sins, is more easily made than proven, 
and all we can do is to go to the Bible itself and see 
what is therein said and how far it supports the claim. 



236 ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE, [chap. xiii. 

The frequent use in the Old Testament of such 
solemn phrases as ' Thus saith the Lord ; ' ' And 
God said ; ' ' God spake these words and said ; ' 
the verses which tell us that 'All scripture is 
given by inspiration of God ; ' that ' holy men of 
old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost/ 
form the chief foundation on which the claim is 
rested. 

Upon the use of the phrases quoted, some very 
instructive facts are given by Sir Samuel Baker in 
his book on the ' Nile Tributaries.' He says 
(pp. 129-131) 'the conversation of the Arabs is 
in the exact style of the Old Testament. The 
name of God is coupled with every trifling 
incident in life. Should a famine afflict the 
country, it is expressed in the stern language of 
the Old Testament : " The Lord has sent a 
grievous famine upon the land/' or "The Lord called 
for a famine and it came upon the land." Should 
their cattle fall sick, it is considered to be an afflic- 
tion by divine command ; or should the flocks 
prosper and multiply, the prosperity is attributed 
to divine interference This striking like- 
ness to the descriptions of the Old Testament is 



CHAP. XIII. ] ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 237 

most interesting to a traveller when living among 
these people. With the Bible in one hand, and 
these unchanged tribes before the eyes, there is a 
thrilling illustration of the sacred records ; the 
past becomes the present; the veil of 3000 years 
is raised, and the living picture is a witness to the 
exactness of the historical description. At the 
same time there is a light thrown upon many 
obscure passages in the Old Testament by the 
experience of the present customs and figures of 
speech of the Arabs ; which are exactly like those 
that were practised at the periods described. . . . 
Should the present history of the country be 
written by an Arab scribe, the style of the descrip- 
tion would be purely that of the Old Testament, 
and the various calamities, or the good fortunes 
that have, in the course of nature, befallen both 
the tribes and individuals would be recounted 
either as special visitations of divine wrath or 
blessings for good deeds performed. If in a 
dream a particular course of action is suggested, 
the Arab believes that God has spoken and 
directed him. The Arab scribe or historian 
would describe the event as the " voice of the 



238 ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE, [chap. xiii. 

Lord " having spoken unto the person ; or that 
God appeared to him in a dream, and " said" &c. 
Thus much allowance would be necessary on the 
part of a European reader for the figurative ideas 
and expressions of the people/ 

When we go to the Bible, we find therein 
exactly what those who have some knowledge of 
its wonderful history might expect. It bears the 
traces of the long years through which it was 
slowly growing, book by book. In its earlier 
pages we find legends which, as already shown, 
are very like to those of nations with whom the 
Jew were connected by race or came in contact ; we 
find there ideas about God which are coarse and 
degrading, which became lofty only as the Jews 
advanced in the thought of Him as pictured in 
the worthy language of the prophets, and which 
were altogether different from the ennobling teach- 
ing of Jesus and of Paul ; we find how deeply 
human all its writers were ; how each differs in 
his style of telling anything and is marked by it ; 
how fully they shared the common beliefs of their 
time ; nor is it easy to find in what they have 



chap, xiil] ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 239 

said truths which, in one form or another, have 
not been stated by the writers of some of the 
sacred books into which we have dipped. 

The Bible records the experience of the wisest 
and best of men of the past in their search after 
truth, but it is hard to discover proof that the 
claim to inspiration which is made for them, and 
which they w r ould perhaps not claim for themselves, 
is one that cannot be denied. And if it be 
admitted, the inspiration would be without value 
unless it w r as also bestowed upon the men who 
copied the manuscripts, upon the men who col- 
lected them together, upon the men who translated 
them, and in short, upon every one w 7 ho in any 
way has had to do with placing the Bible in the 
hands of people of any age and clime. 

It may appear a graceless thing to write any 
words which shall seem to lessen the value of a 
book which for hundreds of years has been so 
precious to men. But the loss is more seeming 
than real, since riddance of error leaves room for 
truth to enter, and it is far better to be quit of 
false notions in early life than to undergo the pain- 
ful and w T eary task of uprooting them in after years. 



2 4 o ON THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE, [chap. xiii. 

The truths which are enshrined in the Bible are 
not less true because frail men spake them, nor is 
that, ' inspiration of the Almighty ' which ' giveth 
understanding ' a less mighty fact because we find 
that the writers of Scripture had it not different 
in kind to that which comes to every man who 
opens his soul to receive it. It dwelt in those 
earnest ones whose yearnings after the unseen 
found utterance in Bible, Rig- Veda, Zend-Avesta, 
Tripitaka, King and Koran, and it dwells in 
earnest souls to-day, wherever the love of truth 
abides. And for us, in whatever written or 
spoken word, or sound of many-voiced nature, we 
find that which speaks to our heart as true, there 
is for us an inspired truth. 



CONCLUSION. 

This outline sketch would have been more com- 
plete if an account had been given of some religions 
that have passed away, but of which fragments 
remain here and there in hoary rite and custom. 

For example, there was the religion of Egypt, 
land of marvel and of mystery : fountain of know- 
ledge at which Assyrian, Greek and Hebrew 
drank ; noted for its discoveries in science, and 
for the majesty, and withal the delicacy, of its 
art ; for the highly civilized state of its people, 
whose daily life — the luxury and pleasures of 
the few — the toil and hardship of the many — 
is pictured on wall-paintings, preserved from decay 
by a rainless climate through five thousand years. 
That religion, standing in awe before the mystery 
of life, looked upon all life as divine, and had its 
upper gods of Nature, Space and Time ; its sun 
and river deities ; its worship of insect, bird, rep- 
tile and beast chiefest of which was the Apis 



242 CONCLUSION. 



bull of Memphis ; its belief in an immortal life, 
and a judgment after death, of which the proofs 
are near us in the mummies of animals and human 
beings, and in the great sacred book known as the 
' Ritual of the Dead/ Behind the forms of that 
religion in pompous festivals, minute ceremonies, 
sacrifices, charms, and months and days each 
dedicate to the gods, there were secrets which the 
priests kept to themselves, through which the re- 
ligion became a priestcraft. 

There was the religion of Greece, revelling in 
sunlight and gladness ; its gods most strong and 
goddesses most fair, dwelling on Mount Olym- 
pus, were beings not free from the follies and 
vices of men, for they spent their lives in fighting, 
feasting, scheming and love-making. Ruling 
mankind, they were in their turn ruled by Fate, 
and therefore inspired neither fear nor respect. 
In the Greek religion the beautiful was the divine, 
and he was accounted most godlike who added by 
his art to all that pleased the eye, or that fell 
musically upon the ear. Lovely forms filled every 
nook and corner of that sunny land : the echoes 
of the nymphs' soft voices were heard among the 



CONCLUSION. 243 



mountains, they dwelt within the forest- trees, and 
slept beside the streams. There was no priestly 
caste, for to pray and sacrifice was the right of 
every free-born Greek ; there were no sacred 
books, but deep reverence for the poet's words. 
Rich feasts and festivals, mysteries and oracles, 
entered largely into the Greek religion, but the 
cheerfulness of this life did not lend itself to colour 
the ideas of a life to come, which were dim and 
misty. 

There was the religion of Rome, empire once 
splendid and stately beyond compare ; a religion 
with no lustre in its eye, no life in its heart, if 
heart it had, but as loveless a thing as the soul 
whom Tennyson so wonderfully describes in his 
' Palace of Art.' It was a worship of law and 
duty, neither of which we should leave undone, 
but it was not an obedience to law and a loyalty 
to duty springing out of love. It was given to 
the gods as their due, as a man pays his just 
debts. There were gods many, Jupiter being 
the chief, and under him deities representing the 
powers of nature, or ruling over money, trade, 
the house, &c. ? and a goodly number had been 



244 CONCLUSION, 



borrowed from Greece, but they left their souls 
behind them. A long list of festivals filled the 
year, and song and dance entered into the honours 
paid the gods, but the true object of worship 
among the Romans was Rome. That a higher 
life beat within the souls of some is proved by the 
noble thoughts of Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and 
others, which have come down to us. 

There was the religion of the Teutons and 
Scandinavians, whose blood is in our veins. Its 
gods, huge, shaggy giants, took shape and char- 
acter from the wild, bleak regions of the north. 
Their virtue was their strength and courage, and 
their work an unending fight against storm and 
snow and darkness. And as with the gods, so 
with the men. To them life was an earnest 
thing, war its business, bravery its duty, cowardice 
its greatest crime. To escape death in bed, since 
for those thus dying Hela waited in her cold prison- 
house below, where hunger was her dish, starva- 
tion her knife, care her bed, and anguish its cur- 
tains ; men would be carried into battle, or mimic 
a violent death by cutting wounds in their flesh, 
that Odin's Choosers of the Slain might lead them 



CONCLUSION. 245 



to his hall (Valhalla), where they fought at dawn, 
and if wounded, were healed by noon, ready for 
the feast and song. There was withal tenderness 
and warmth within these rough Norsemen's hearts, 
and when they gave up beautiful Baldur, son of 
Odin, for Jesus, son of God, the missionaries of 
the cross gained their noblest triumph. 

In brief, the Egyptians worshipped nature; 
the Greeks, beauty; the Romans, laiv ; and the 
Northern races, courage. 

Then there were the religions of Babylon, Phoe- 
nicia, and other mighty nations ; of the Aztecs of 
Mexico and the Incas of Peru ; and there is a valu- 
able field of study in learning about the beliefs and 
practices existing among the tribes of Africa, 
America, Polynesia, &c, since they furnish illus- 
trations of those earliest forms of religion out of 
which have slowly risen the ennobling beliefs of the 
most advanced races of mankind. 

But all this, and very much more, must be 
passed by. 

There is, however, one question which makes 
itself heard in many parts of this book and to 
which an answer must be given. It is this : How 



246 CONCLUSION, 



do the facts brought together herein about the 
great religions of the world bear on our Christian 
religion, and what is the relation between them 
and it ? To worthily answer this would fill many 
pages, and it must suffice to give one or two 
reasons for replying that our religion, while 
beyond question the highest of all, takes a place 
not distinct from, but among all religions, past or 
present. Its relation to them is not that they are 
earthborn, while it alone is divine, but it is the 
relation of one member of a family to other 
members, who are ' all brothers, having one work, 
one hope and one All-Father/ 

I know that it is not always easy to think thus 
of it, because it is dear to us as no other religion 
ever could be, linked as it is by love towards him 
who lived the saintliest life and died the martyr- 
death, and in following whose example we follow 
all that is beautiful and divine. But viewing it 
as one amongst others, much that otherwise per- 
plexes and even dismays us is taken away, and we 
cease to wonder that its history is so like that of 
other religions. We are able to understand why it 
has grown from small beginnings and been subject 



CONCLUSION, 247 



to many changes, as they have, if we believe that 
it also had its rise in the nature of man. We 
understand how the early disciples of Jesus 
treasured with loving care the memory of what he 
had said, and how, as the years rolled on, it 
seemed good to some of them to commit what 
they knew or had heard to writings which in 
course of time took shape as the New Testament. 
We see how the simple faith of the first Christians 
became sadly corrupted, how word-mongers and 
creed-makers stifled it, how, petted in kingly 
courts and clad in earthly armour, its kingdom be- 
came of this world. We read of its victories and 
defeats ; its divisions and their brood of hate, 
cruelty and martyrdom ; its failure to regain some 
of the ground lost and to win to itself races whose 
religions were grey with age when it was born. 
And we read too, how, in the good providence of 
God, it was embraced by the nations descended 
from those Aryan tribes who travelled into Europe 
and to whom He has given so great a part to play 
in this world's rough story; and how, by that love of 
man which is its life, it made helpful to the world's 
good those mighty forces to which it was thus joined. 



248 CONCLUSION. 



All this, and very much more that could be 
added, becomes clear as the noonday if Christianity 
be regarded as like in kind to other faiths ; while 
treated as altogether unlike, its slow progress and 
varying fortunes bewilder us, and our trust grows 
feeble and perishes. 

I have said thus much, because neither you nor 
I are likely to give up our religion and become 
Muslims or Buddhists, and also because I would 
have you without fear compare it with theirs, and 
gladly welcome in each that which we know is 
common to all, and which makes us ' all brothers, 
because we have one work and one hope and one 
All-Father.' 

I have been more careful to collect facts relat- 
ing to the matter of this book than to ask what 
they mean, since in every study the mastery of 
facts and the knowledge of their relation to one 
another is of the first importance. Conclusions 
can always wait and always take care of themselves. 
But now that the end of our story is reached, I 
must say a few words suggested by what it tells. 

1. In all things we see purpose and progress. 



CONCLUSION. 249 



No race of people has been placed where it is 
found by chance, for God hath appointed the 
bounds of its habitation, and when it moves, it 
is His hand that guides it towards 'one far-off, 
divine event.' 

Deep down in the earth's crust there are 
remains of the dim specks of life from which have 
come forms of life higher and still higher, till the 
lordliest and the best appeared. 

The lichens that rest ' starlike on the stone ' 
and tree-trunk, that, with the mosses, cover the 
wide moorlands and adorn the mountain-side where 
nought else will grow, these prepare a soil into 
which the noblest trees of the forest can strike 
their roots. 

The caves and old river-beds disclose the rough 
stone tools which the common sense of savage man 
shaped to point and edge, and by the use of which 
he made possible that which we are to-day in this 
Age of Iron. And it is the same with man's higher 
nature. First cringing, awe-struck, before some mis- 
shapen stone, or before the dead yet moving powers 
in cloud and river, then worshipping living crea- 
tures, and so on step by step until, with now a 



250 CONCLUSION. 



stumble and now a fall, he rises from worship of 
the thing made to worship of its Maker ; from re- 
verence, born of fear, for the strong, to adoration, 
born of love, for the holy. Every morning 
there steal up the eastern sky the early rays 
that gently prepare our waking eyes for the 
brighter light of the sun, whose glory would 
dazzle if it burst upon us suddenly, and in like 
manner, in the dawn of this world's history, God 
let truth into the minds of men little by little, yet 
ever pouring forth more as they were able to re- 
ceive it, and still it increases and will increase, 
shining 'more and more unto the perfect day.' 

2. What has been said pre-supposes the fact 
that man is a religious being. 

Look where we will, we find that when his 
bodily wants, be they few or many, have been 
supplied, there remains a craving which no gift 
of earth can satisfy, the craving of his heart after 
God. All men have it, although in some it sleeps, 
and it is the same in all none the less because it 
shows itself in different ways. Under various 
forms we see expressed a sense of need ; a belief 
as in the savage, in a will mightier than his own ; 



CONCLUSION. 251 



as in the civilized man, in a will holier than his 
own ; a feeling of duty which, in the lowest races, 
takes what is to us a brutal shape, but which is 
none the less such a feeling ; as, for example, 
when the Feejee kills his aged parent under the 
fear that he may become too feeble to undertake 
r the journey to another world; and lastly, the 
universal belief that a man's soul or self does not 
die, but haunts the place it lived in, or betakes 
itself to some far-off happy land. 

Such being the nature of man, we must be 
careful lest we speak or think meanly of him and 
thus dishonour his Creator. He who has a low 
and unworthy idea of his nature will act un- 
worthily ; while he who feels how great is the life 
of a being made in the image of God will not 
readily blot and blur that image. If anyone be 
told that he cannot choose the right and love the 
true, and live out the pure, he will feel that if it 
be so, to try is hopeless work. But we are very 
sure that it is not so, else how could there dwell 
within us sorrow and unquiet after doing wrong, 
if we did not feel that we can do, and ought to do 



252 CONCLUSION. 



the right ? If such chilling unfaith in themselves 
and in their kind had been in the heart of the saintly 
men whose lives have blessed the world ; who, like 
salt, have kept the mass from decay; how, think you, 
could they have dared and done ? They had faith 
in man as the fruit of faith in the God who made 
him ; they felt that the life of man is not what it 
will one day become, and this it was that fired 
them to earnest effort in the service and salvation 
of their fellows, and to help on the time when 
earth shall be the paradise it never has been yet : 

' Who rowing hard against the stream, 
Saw distant gates of Eden gleam, 
And did not dream it was a dream/ 

It is the faith of such men, some of whose lives 
have been looked at in this book, thai you and I 
must share. Life is full of duty, and to do welt 
the work that lies close at hand is to fulfil the 
purpose for which we were sent here. The 
weakest and youngest amongst us is a power for 
good as well as for evil, and it should be our aim 
to do our part on the side of ever-increasing 
human goodness against ever-lessening human 
badness. 



CONCLUSION, 



There is but one life, if life it may be called, 
which seems to me to be God-forsaken ; it is the 
life that is idle or selfish. Those few words 
express more than one might think, but their 
meaning has been set to sw r eeter music than I can 
command by Leigh Hunt in the story of Abou 
Ben Adhem, with which I close this book : 

c Abou Ben Adhem — may his tribe increase ! — 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw amid the moonlight in his room, 
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold ; 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the vision in the room he said, 
"What writest thou? n The vision raised its head, 
And with a voice made of all sweet accord, 
Replied, " The names of them that love the Lord." 
" And is mine one ? " said Abou. " Nay, not so," 
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 
But cheerly still, and said, " I pray thee, then, 
" Write me as one who loves his fellow men." 

The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 
He came again with a great wakening light ; 
He showed the names whom love of God had blest, 
And lo ! Ben Adhern's name led all the rest.' 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE A, page 22. 

ON THE LIKENESS BETWEEN CERTAIN CHALDEAN AND JEWISH 
LEGENDS. 

The resemblance between some of these legends has been 
shown at pp. 22, 71, but the most remarkable and interesting 
illustration appears while this book is passing through the 
press. Among the tablets brought from Assyria by Mr 
George Smith, who, it will be remembered, was first sent 
there at the expense of the spirited proprietors of the Daily 
Telegraph, are a series of fragments which, joined to some 
smaller pieces in the British Museum collection, give ' the 
history of the world from the Creation down to some period 
after the fall of man.' Pending the issue of a promised full 
translation of the legends, which will be eagerly awaited, their 
accomplished and unwearying discoverer has announced his 
success in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, 4th March 1875, 
wherein he gives the following brief account of the contents 
of the tablets : 

' Whatever the primitive account may have been from 
which the earlier part of the Book of Genesis was copied, it is 
evident that the brief narration given in the Pentateuch 
omits a number of incidents and explanations — for instance, 
as to the origin of evil, the fall of the angels, the wickedness 
of the serpent, &c. Such points as these are included in the 



256 APPENDIX. 



Cuneiform narrative ; but of course I can say little about 
them until I prepare full translations of the legends. 

4 The narrative on the Assyrian tablets commences with a 
description of the period before the world was created, when 
there existed a chaos or confusion. The desolate and empty 
state of the universe and the generation by chaos of monsters 
are vividly given. The chaos is presided over by a female 
power named Tisalat and Tiamat, corresponding to the 
Thalatth of Berosus ; but as it proceeds the Assyrian account 
agrees rather with the Bible than with the short account 
from Berosus. We are told, in the inscriptions, of the fall 
of the celestial being who appears to correspond to Satan. 
In his ambition he raises his hand against the sanctuary of 
the God of heaven, and the description of him is really 
magnificent. He is represented riding in a chariot through 
celestial space, surrounded by the storms, with the lightning 
playing before him, and wielding a thunderbolt as a weapon. 

' This rebellion leads to a war in heaven and the conquest of 
the powers of evil, the gods in due course creating the 
universe in stages, as in the Mosaic narrative, surveying each 
step of the work and pronouncing it good. The divine work 
culminates in the creation of man, who is made upright and 
free from evil, and endowed by the gods with the noble 
faculty of speech. 

' The Deity then delivers a long address to the newly -created 
being, instructing him in all his duties and privileges, and 
pointing out the glory of his state. But this condition of 
blessing does not last long before man, yielding to tempta- 
tion, falls ; and the Deity then pronounces upon him a terrible 
curse, invoking on his head all the evils which have since 
afflicted humanity. These last details are, as I have before 
stated, upon the fragment which I excavated during my first 
journey to Assyria, and the discovery of this single relic in 



APPENDIX. 257 



my opinion increases many times over the value of The Daily 
Telegraph collection. 

1 1 have at present recovered no more of the story, and am 
not yet in a position to give the full translations and details ; 
but I hope during the spring to find time to search over the 
collection of smaller fragments of tablets, and to light upon 
any smaller parts of the legends which may have escaped me. 
There will arise, besides, a number of important questions as 
to the date and origin of the legends, their comparison with 
the Biblical narrative, and as to how far they may supple- 
ment the Mosaic account.' 

In a valuable contribution to the Academy, 20th March 
J 875, Mr Sayce shows that the Phoenician legends form, as 
it were, the link between the Chaldean and the Hebrew so 
far as the so-called Elohistic portion of Genesis is concerned : 
this being especially noticeable in the legend of the Creation 
and the sacrifice of Isaac (upon which cf. Haug^s 'Aitareya- 
Brahmana;' MaxMuller's Anct. Sans. Lit. 408-17; Gubernati's 
Zool. Mythol., I. 69 ; and the Greek myth of Agamemnon 
and Iphigenia) . Mr Sayce also explains the very close re- 
semblance between the Babylonian and Jewish legends of the 
garden of Eden, the Deluge, and the Tower of Babel, the 
Phoenician analogies failing us here altogether. But the 
whole subject is still in its infancy, and, as Prof, de Gubernati 
remarks, " when we shall be able to bring into Semitic studies 
the same liberty of scientific criticism which is conceded to 
Aryan studies, we shall have a Semitic mythology ; for the 
present, faith, a natural sense of repugnance to abandon the 
beloved superstitions of our credulous childhood, and more 
than all, a less honourable sentiment of terror for the opinion 
of the world, have restrained men of study from examining 
Jewish history and tradition with entire impartiality and 
severity of judgment.' (Vol. II. 410, 412.) 
12 



258 APPENDIX. 



NOTE B, page 31. 

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 

In endeavouring to give a clear and untechnical account of 
Laplace's nebular hypothesis so that its main features may be 
comprehended by young persons, I have not thought it 
desirable to introduce any remarks upon the insufficiency of 
that hypothesis to explain the arrangement of the varying 
masses of the major and minor planets of our system. My 
friend Mr Proctor, with his accustomed clearness and 
independent examination of all hypotheses, has, I think, 
shown conclusively that ' a theory involving combined pro- 
cesses of accretion and contraction is the true hypothesis of 
the evolution of the solar system.' (See his works generally, 
but especially 4 Other Worlds than Ours,' pp. 210-19, and an 
article on 4 The Past and Future of our Earth/ Contemp. 
Rev., Dec. 1874.) The accretion, due to the indrawing of 
matter from the infinite space around, falls in with all that 
we have learnt of the intimate relation between every system 
of every galaxy composing a universe wherein neither sun 
nor minutest atom dwells in isolation. 

Subject to the modification thus indicated, all our present 
knowledge points to nebular condensation as the origin of 
suns with their systems. That vast masses of matter exist in 
a gaseous and highly incandescent state is proved by the 
spectroscope. That such masses are cooling by radiation, 
with the inevitable result of condensation and rotation is 
equally certain ; and if the result of the observations of Mr 
Ellery and others, now extending over a period of some 
years, upon the nebula surrounding the star Eta Argus in the 
southern hemisphere may be relied upon, then such a process 
is going on under the eyes of the astronomers of to-day. (See 



APPENDIX. 259 



Monthly Xotices of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxv. p. 
192 ; xxviii. pp. 200, 225 ; xxix. p. 82 ; xxxiv. p. 269.) 



NOTE C, page 50. 

ON TIIE PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS AND LIFELESS OBJECTS AS THE 
CAUSE OF INJURY TO MANKIND. 

The belief entertained by man in the myth-making stage 
of his progress that all motion in things around is actuated by 
personal life and will analogous to his own, and differing 
only in degree, goes far to explain why even inanimate 
objects have been held criminally responsible for disaster 
occasioned by them. Commenting upon the mental condition 
which causes the savage to bite the stone over which he 
stumbles and the civilized man to kick the chair against 
which he bruises himself, Dr Tylor remarks in his ' Primitive 
Culture,' Yol. I. 259, that it ( may be traced along the course 
of history, not merely in impulsive habit, but in formally 
enacted law. The rude Kukis of Southern Asia were very 
scrupulous in carrying out their simple law of vengeance, life 
for life ; if a tiger killed a Kuki, his family were in disgrace 
till they had retaliated by killing and eating this tiger, or 
another ; but further, if a man was killed by a fall from a 
tree, his relatives would take their revenge by cutting the 
tree down and scattering it in chips. A modern king of 
Cochin China, when one of his ships sailed badly, used to put 
it in the pillory as he would any other criminal. In classical 
times the stories of Xerxes flogging the Hellespont and Cyrus 
draining the Gyndes occur as cases in point, but one of the 
regular Athenian legal proceedings is a yet more striking 
relic. A court of justice was held at the Prytaneum, to try 
any inanimate object, such as an axe or a piece of wood or 



26o APPENDIX. 



stone which had caused the death of any one without proved 
human agency, and this wood or stone, if condemned, was in 
solemn form cast beyond the border (Grote, iii. p. 104 ; 
v. p. 22). The spirit of this remarkable procedure reappears 
in the old English law (repealed in the present reign in 1846), 
whereby not only a beast that kills a man, but a cart-wheel 
that runs over him, or a tree that falls on him and kills him, 
is deodand or given to God, i.e., forfeited and sold for the 
poor : as Bracton says, " Omnia quae movent ad mortem 
sunt Deodanda." ' And among the records of ancient legisla- 
tion in France upon similar matters, we have, on the 4th 
June 1094, the hanging of a pig for devouring the babe of a 
cowherd at Laon, and twenty-six years later the excom- 
munication by the Bishop of Laon of a swarm of caterpillars ; 
while c in 1516, the Courts of Troyes, complying with the 
prayers of the inhabitants of Yillenoxe, admonished the 
caterpillars by which that district was then infested to take 
themselves off within six days, on pain of being declared 
" accursed and excommunicated I" 9 A sanction for the 
punishment of animals would be found in the Jewish law, 
which directed that ' if an ox gore a man or woman that they 
die ; then the ox shall be surely stoned and his flesh shall 
not be eaten.' (Exodus xxi. 28 ; Cf. also Genesis ix. 5.) 

NOTE D, page 53. 

ON THE SUPPOSED BIRTHPLACE OF MANKIND. 

Although the old notions as to the recent advent of man 
upon this planet are refuted by the evidence now accu- 
mulated as to his immense antiquity, it is true that he is 
relatively modern when compared with the creatures that 
preceded him, while the further back that we push the 



APPENDIX. 261 



geological epoch of his appearance, even to the Miocene 
period, the more cumulative is the evidence in favour of the 
unity of origin of the various races. But when we endea- 
vour to fix upon the site of the original home of mankind, 
the evidence at hand is so slight that it behoves us to speak 
with the utmost caution. Looking to man's slender organi- 
zation, and to the absence of any natural protection against 
cold, it seems probable that he arose in some warm region, 
and in remarking that such region may have been a land 
now submerged beneath the Indian Ocean, to which Profes- 
sor Sclater has given the appropriate name ' Lemuria,' we 
have the assertion of Professor Huxley that the geographi- 
cal distribution of the Negro race cannot be explained 
except on the hypothesis that great changes have occurred 
since the appearance of that race, changes involving the sub- 
mersion of an immense tract of land, or closely -linked chain 
of islands stretching eastwards from Africa. (Cf. Huxley 
on i The Methods and Results of Ethnology,' Fortnightly 
EevieiVj i. pp. 257 et seq. ; Lubbock's ' Pre-Historic Times,' 
pp. 387, 388, 3d edit.) In a review of Dr Peschel's ' Ethno- 
logy ' (Volkerkunde), of which valuable work a translation 
is announced as forthcoming, Dr Tylor, in commenting on 
the theory that * Lemuria ' was the cradle of mankind, 
remarks as follows — ' Such a continent, Dr Peschel thinks, 
is an anthropological necessity for Australians, Coolies, 
Papuans and Negroes, to reach their present homes almost 
dry-shod. As to climate, moreover, this birthplace of man 
would be situated in the very zone of the anthropoid apes. 
It is remarked that such a choice of the region of man's first 
appearance would be more orthodox than seems at first sight, 
for here we are in the neighbourhood of the four mysterious 
rivers of Eden, namely, the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris and 
Indus. And in the gradual submergence of Lemuria we see 



262 APPENDIX. 

pitilessly accomplished the expulsion from Paradise, situated, 
as the old geographers knew, in south-east Asia. This, Dr 
Peschel is careful to add, is only an hypothesis, but it is an 
hypothesis which may lead to geological investigations of 
Madagascar, Ceylon and Rodriguez, and soundings in the 
Indian Ocean in quest of relics of the vanished land. 7 
(Academy, June 13, 1874, p. 664:.) 

NOTE E, page 126. 

ON THE COMMON ORIGIN OF FAIRY TALES. 

A full discussion of this subject would occupy a goodly- 
sized volume, and it is not my purpose to add anything to 
what has been stated in the text, except to remark that it 
does not necessarily follow that European tales whose lead- 
ing features resemble Eastern tales existed among the undi- 
vided Aryans and migrated with the races, it being certain 
that many of our folk-tales were invented in the story -loving 
East after the Aryans separated and imported into Europe 
by pilgrims, students, merchants and warriors, whose seve- 
ral avocations were the means of intimately connecting East 
and V\ r est together. 

The following list, which by no means pretends to complete- 
ness, of the principal books in our own language bearing upon 
Indo-European folk-lore, and which are within reach, may 
be of service to any who desire to pursue the subject of com- 
parative mythology. 

Baring-Gould's ' Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,' Riv~ 
ington, 6s. ; Busk's ' Folk-Lore of Rome,' Longmans, 12s. ; 
Campbell's ' Popular Tales of the West Highlands,' Edmon* 
ston & Douglas, 32s. ; Chambers' ' Book of Days/ Chambers. 
21s ; Cox's ' Aryan Mythology/ Longmans, 28s. ; ' Manual 



APPENDIX. 263 

of Mythology/ 3s. ; ' Tales of Ancient Greece/ Gs. 6d. ; 
Dasent's ' Popular Tales from the Norse ' (out of print) ; 
1 Tales from the Fjeld/ Chapman & Hall, 10s. 6d. ; Denton's 
1 Serbian Folk-Lore/ Daldy & Co., 10s. 6d. ; Fiske's 4 Myths 
and Myth-Makers/ Trubner, 10s. 6d. ; Frere's 4 Old Deccan 
Days/ Murray, 6s ; Goddard's ' Wonderful Stories from Nor- 
thern Lands/ Longmans, 5s. ; Gammer Grethel's 4 Fairy Tales/ 
Bohn, 3s. 6d. (and other publishers ; these tales being trans- 
lations of Grimm's Kinderund Hansmarchen, or Nursery and 
Fireside Stories) ; Gubernati's * Zoological Mythology/ Triib- 
ner, 28s. ; Halli well's ' Popular Nursery Rhymes/ Warne, 3s. 
6d. ; Hardy's ' Legends and Theories of the Buddhists/ 
Williams & Norgate, 7s. 6d ; ' Jataka/ Pali text and Transla- 
tion, by Fausboll, Trubner, 16s. 6d. ; Johnson's 4 Hitopadesa/ 
Allen & Co., 5s. ; Max Midlers 'Hitopadesa/ 2 vols., Long- 
mans, 15s.; Keightley's ' Fairy Mythology/ Bohn, 5s. ; Kelly's 
4 Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-Lore/ 
Chapman & Hall (but of print) ; Lane's ' Arabian Nights ' 
(out of print ; although the tales are from a Semitic people, 
they are valuable for purposes of comparison) ; Mallet's 
4 Northern Antiquities/ Bohn, 5s. ; Max Midler's ' Chips from 
a German Workshop/ 2 vols., Longmans, 24s. ; Muir's 4 Ori- 
ginal Sanskrit Texts/ 5 vols., Trubner ; Ralston's 4 Songs of 
the Russian People/ Daldy & Co., 5s. ; Ralston's ' Russian 
Folk-Tales/ Smith, Elder & Co., 12s. ; 4 Slavonic Fairy Tales/ 
trans, by Naake, H. S. King & Co., 5s. ; Thorpe's 4 Northern 
Mythology ? (out of print) ; Tylor's 4 Early Hist, of Mankind/ 
Murray, 12s.; Tylor's ' Primitive Culture/ 2 vols, (more par- 
ticularly volume 1), Murray, 24s. ; Brand's ' Popular Anti- 
quities/ 3 vols., Bohn, 15s. ; Murray's l Manual of Mythology/ 
Asher & Co., 9s. 



264 APPENDIX. 



NOTE F, page 138. 

THE SACKED BOOKS OF HINDUISM. 

The sacred literature of Hinduism comprises the four Vedas 
and certain mistical and philosophical books connected with 
them, as the Aranyakas and Upanishads ; the Sutras or brief 
digest of sacrificial rules and Brahmanic meditations ; the 
Purdnas and Tantras, upon which the popular creed is 
founded ; while closely related to the earlier period of Hindu- 
ism are two epic poems not inaptly spoken of as the Iliad 
and Odyssey of the East, and entitled the Rdmdyana and 
MaMbhdrata. There is also a celebrated law-book, known 
as the Institutes of Menu or Manu, from which the Hindu 
legend of the creation given at p. 24 is quoted, and which 
treats of religious as well as legal subjects. 

Under the general name of Yedas there are included four 
collections of hymns, of which the Kig-Veda is the oldest and 
most important, the others consisting mainly of extracts 
from it. The collections are respectively known as the 

Rig-Yeda, .... Veda of Hymns of Praise. 
Sama-Yeda, . . . Yeda of Chants. 
Yagur-Veda, . . . Yeda of Sacrificial Formulas. 
Atharva-Veda (also called 
Brahma- Yeda), . . Yeda of Incantations. 

Each Yeda consists of two portions ; Sanhita or collection of 
Mantras or hymns, and Brahmana, which gives ' information on 
the proper use of the hymns at sacrifices, on their sacred 
meaning, on their supposed authors, and similar topics.' On 
the authorship and final collection of the Yedic hymns Dr 
Muir remarks : 4 For many ages the successive generations of 
these ancient rishis continued to make new contributions to 



APPENDIX. 26=5 



the stock of hymns, while they carefully preserved those 
which had been handed down to them by their forefathers. 
The fact of this successive composition of the hymns is 
evident from the ancient index to the Rig-Veda, which shows 
that these compositions are ascribed to different generations of 
the same family as their " seers." The descendants of the 
most celebrated rishis would no doubt form complete collec- 
tions of the hymns which had been composed by their 
respective ancestors. After being thus handed down, with 
little alteration, in the families of the original authors for 
several centuries, during which many of them were continu- 
ally applied to the purposes of religious worship, these hymns, 
which had been gathering an accumulated sanctity through- 
out all this period, were at length collected in one great body 
of sacred literature, styled the Sanhita of the Rig- Veda — a 
work which in the Puranas is assigned to Vedavyasa and one 
of his pupils.' (Origl. Sanskrit Texts, Part II. pp. 206, 
et seq.) 

Of the ten books which compose the Rig- Veda, the first 
book contains 191 hymns. The hymns to Agni are placed 
first, then those to Indra, followed by those addressed to 
other leading deities. The contents of the next six books are 
arranged in like manner and are each ascribed to a single 
poet or poetic family ; ' thus far we seem to have a single 
collection made and ordered by the same hand.' Of the 
remaining books, the ninth is notable because the whole of 
its hymns, 114 in number, are addressed to the Soma, while 
the tenth book, the contents of which are of various author- 
ship, has the same number of hymns as the first book. 

The Sanaa- Veda consists entirely of verses from the Rig- 
Veda which were chanted at the Soma-ritual. The verses 
composing the Sanhita of the Yagur-Veda were chiefly 
selected from the Rig- Veda for muttering during various 



266 APPENDIX. 

sacrificial ceremonies. The fourth Veda contains, in addition 
to selections from the Rig-Veda, hymns of a later age 
addressed to gods who are objects of fear to their cringing 
worshippers, and to a multitude of demons whom the 
suppliants seek to appease by promises and bribes. 

Of the Brahmanas attached to each Veda, attention can 
here be called only to the Satapatha-Brahmana which is 
appended to the White or later portion of the Yagur-Yeda and 
which in addition to descriptions of various festivals, has 
some curious stories, one of which narrates the Deluge (See 
Max Miiller's Anct. Sans. Literature, p. 425). The relation 
of the Brahmanas to the metrical portion of the Yedas may 
be compared to that of the writings of the Fathers to the 
New Testament or to that of the Talmud to the Old Testa- 
ment, but, as already stated in the text, they are regarded, 
like the hymns, as divinely inspired. 

The opinions of Sanskrit scholars differ as to the age of the 
oldest hymns of the Kig-Veda, Dr Haug placing them as far 
back as B.C. 2400 ; Prof. Whitney between B.C. 1C00 and 
B.C. 2000; and Prof. Max Miiller B.C. 1200 to B.C. 1500. 
(For discussion upcn the probable date of the oldest portion of 
the Rig-Veda, see Whitney's 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies/ 
pp. 21, 73, and Max Miiller's ' Chips/ vol. i., pp. 11, 114). 
The Sutras (meaning ' string ' or * thread 7 ) consist of strings 
of short sentences explaining and giving directions concern- 
ing public and household religious rites and stating in pithy 
form the long result of Brahmanic thought and speculation. 
They are greatly revered and out of those portions which 
deal with public and private duties the famous Laws or 
Institutes of Manu have been developed. There are also six 
works, known as the Yedangas, or ' limbs of the Veda,' which 
treat of the grammar, metre, proper pronunciation (a matter 
of as much importance in Brahmanic eyes as correct under- 



APPENDIX. 267 



standing) of the Yedic texts. The chief object of one 
Yedanga is 4 to convey such knowledge of the heavenly bodies 
as is necessary for fixing correctly the days and hours of the 
Yedic sacrifices.' 

The Aranyakas (from aranya, a forest) are treatises which 
were ( prepared for the edification of those who have retired 
to live a life of contemplative solitude and asceticism in the 
woods, as it is theoretically the duty of every Brahmanic 
householder to do, after a certain period of life/ and the 
Upanishads are works closely related to the above, but giving 
amplitude to meditations on the questions which have ever 
perplexed the human mind and which called forth vain reply 
in those great systems of Hindu philosophy ivhich arose many 
centuries before Christ. 

From this outline, naked and incomplete as it is, we may 
yet see what a vast body of literature the Rig-Yeda-Sanhita 
gathered round itself, a literature the age of which may 
never be accurately known, but the antiquity of which is 
beyond question. 

The Ramayana and Mahabharata, both of which, certain 
portions excepted, were doubtless written before the rise of 
Buddhism, form, together with the Puranas, the popular 
sacred literature of the Hindus, the great mass of whom are 
wholly ignorant of the Yeda and its connected writings. 
The Ramayana is the work of one author and mainly narrates 
the history of Kama, the seventh incarnation or avatar of 
Yishnu, whose supremacy is upheld throughout the poem. 
Amidst much that is absurd there are passages of exceeding 
tenderness and grace, as the following episode shows. Rama's 
father had in a moment of weakness promised to grant one of 
his queens any two boons she might please to ask, and she, 
jealous that Rama might supplant her own son in the throne, 
requested his banishment. When he is gone, the remorse of 



268 APPENDIX. 



the king is great, and there rises before him the memory of a 
death which he had accidentally caused when a young man. 
He tells his favourite queen how, when hunting, his arrow 
by mischance shot a poor boy who was the comfort of his 
parents, and how as the father leaned over the body he 
besought the still tongue to speak : 

'Come, dear child, embrace thy father; put thy little hand in 

mine ; 
Let me hear thee sweetly prattle some fond, playful word of thine. 
Ah ! who '11 read me now the Vedas, filling my own heart with joy ? 
Who, when evening rites are over, cheer me, mourning for my boy ? 
Who will bring me fruits and water, roots and wild herbs from the 

wood ? 
Who supply the helpless hermit, like a cherish'd guest, with food ? 
Can I tend thine aged mother till her weary life is done ? 
Can I feed her, soothe her sorrow, — longing for her darling son ? ' 

The king then tells how the father cursed him for the deed 
and said, ' For this thing that thou hast done, as I mourn for 
my beloved, thou shalt sorrow for a son/ and he feels that the 
day of the prophecy's sad fulfilment has come. Such 
pathetic incidents as this and, to borrow a more familiar ex- 
ample, the touching tribute to a mother's tenderness in the 
hour of need which is told in 2 Kings iv. 18-20, move us 
more than the story of kingcraft in which each is imbedded. 

The Mahabharata, or ' great history of the descendants of 
Bharata,' contains above 200,000 lines, and is the work of 
different authors at different periods. It is a story of 
quarrels between rival families, whose adventures and wars 
do not however occupy more than one-fourth of the narra- 
tive, the remaining three-fourths consisting of a variety of 
episodes and legends, amongst which latter is one of the 
Deluge closely resembling that given in the Satapatha- 
Brahmana, but told at greater length ; one incident being 



APPENDIX, 269 



that when the flood was over it was discovered that among 
the treasures which had been lost was the ' Amrita, or Drink 
of Immortality.' The gods met in council to consider how 
the loss might be repaired, when Vishnu advises them to 
churn the ocean that the vexed sea might give back its spoil. 
AVith the aid of Brahma and the King of the Serpents the 
lost Amrita is recovered. We see from this incident that the 
Vedic gods had fallen from their high places, and were no 
longer regarded as immortal, except through partaking of the 
beverage of immortality. The Mahabharata is noted for a 
deeply religious and philosophical poem called the ' Bhagavad- 
Gita, i.e., ' Revelations from the Deity,' which is interwoven 
in the midst of a battle scene. 

The Puranas, which are barely a thousand years old, are 
eighteen in number. Their contents are very miscellaneous, 
embracing cosmogony, legends (many of which are derived 
from the Mahabharata and cast in an expanded form), 
genealogies of the gods, directions about festivals, &c, all 
written in the form of dialogue and presented in a style 
which secures their being widely read by the common people. 
They are evidently of priestly origin, one main object in their 
compilation being the exaltation of Vishnu and Siva, each of 
whom has Puranas written to his praise and glory ; Vishnu 
more than Siva. The Tantras are certain works in which 
directions are given for the correct performance of rites in 
honour of the ' energy ' or wife of Siva, many of which are 
of a debasing kind. 

The sacred literature of Hinduism thus shows three 
distinct periods in the history of that religion: 1st, the 
Vedic, represented by the Vedas (the fourth Veda excepted, 
as being the latest), Sutras and forest-treatises; 2d, the 
Brahmanic, by the laws of Manu and the Epic poems, a 
period during which the systems of philosophy, the Hindu 



APPENDIX. 



triad, the division of people into caste, &c, arose ; and, 
Buddhism having in the meantime risen and declined, 3d, the 
modern Hindu, represented by the Purauas and kindred 
works. 

Very much of interest, which is beyond the province of 
this book to deal with, awaits the student of the secular 
literature of India, — its dramas, fictions, lyric poetry and 
fables. Of these a very able analysis is given in Manning's 
4 Ancient and Mediaeval India ; (Allen & Co., 30s.) ; while all 
that the ordinary reader would care to know concerning the 
Yedic and Brahmanic periods and the contents of the two 
great epics and leading dramas is given in a condensed but 
lively form in Talboys Wheeler's ' Hist, of India ' (Triibner & 
Co., 3 vols., 57s.), Miss Richardson's 'Iliad of the East' 
(Macmillan & Co., 7s. 6d), and Mr Griffiths' ' Specimens of 
Indian Poetry ' (Triibner & Co., 6s.) ; Mr Griffiths has also 
recently completed a translation of the 'Ramayana' (Triibner 
& Co., 84s.) ; while the Mahabharata is the subject of a 
learned article in the Westminster Review, April 1868. For 
full information on the matters of this Note the most valuable 
and accessible books are Prof. H. H. Wilson's Works 
(especially vols, vi.-x. for the contents of the Puranas) ; 
Colebrooke's Essays ; Muir's Sanskrit Texts ; Max Midler's 
Rig -Veda ; all which are published by Messrs Triibner & Co., 
but, owing unfortunately to the limited number of readers 
among whom they circulate, somewhat high-priced. 

NOTE G, page 150. 

ON THE WORDS BRAHMA OR BRAHM AND BRAHMA. 

Brahma or Brahm is the nominative singular of the neuter 
noun Brahman, which meant originally ' force, will, wish, and 



APPENDIX. 271 



the propulsive power of creation.' ' But/ remarks Professor 
Max M tiller, ' this impersonal brahman as soon as it is named 
grows into something strange and divine. It ends by being 
one of many gods, one of the great triad worshipped to the 
present day.' Brahma is the nominative singular of the mas- 
culine noun. 

NOTE H, page 159. 

THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE PARSI RELIGION. 

By the name Zend-Avesta, or, as the native scholars have 
it, Avesta-Zend, ' text or scripture ' and ' commentary/ 
is said to be signified, but the meaning of the words is un- 
certain. The books included under this title are ascribed by 
the Parsis to Zoroaster, to whom it was said God revealed 
them in the form of conversations, as, according to the Old 
Testament, He talked w 7 ith Moses. But with the exception 
of the Gathas, which are the oldest portion, and w^hich may 
embody what Zoroaster communicated to his disciples, the 
Avesta is probably, as its fragmentary character denotes, the 
result of tradition gathered from many sources. 

It consists of the Yazna, the Vispered, which together with 
a third portion, the Vendiddd, make up the Vendlddd Sdde; 
and the Yeslit, which added to some smaller pieces, composes 
the Khor deli- Avesta, or ' lesser Avesta.' 

These include the Avesta proper, which is written in an 
ancient Persian language, from whicli the modern dialects of 
Persia are probably descended. Attached to the Avesta are 
translations and explanations of its text, some written inPehlevi, 
an ancient mixed language, and others inParsi,an older form of 
the modern Persian. To this additional matter the name Zend 
is more correctly given ; and besides this, there are still later 



APPENDIX. 



additions, the most prominent of which is the Bundchesh, a 
digest of Zoroastrian scriptures and doctrines. The principal 
portion of the Avesta is the Yazna (from a word allied to the 
Sanskrit yajna, meaning ' sacrifice'). It consists of seventy- 
two chapters, many of which drily detail the chief ' person- 
ages and objects recognized by the Zoroastrian religion, 
while the remaining and older portion is of greater interest. 
It includes the Gathas, five collections of unrhymed metrical 
hymns, which, speaking broadly, are related to the rest as 
the Rig-veda to the Br&hmanas. The first hymn is headed 
4 The Revealed Thought, the Revealed Word, the Revealed 
Deed of Zarathustra the Holy; the Archangel's first song, the 
Gathas/ ' They are all more or less devoted to exhortations on 
the part of the prophet to forsake the devas (see p. 160), and 
to bow only before Ahuramazda,' to whom, as well as to his 
angels, and to earth, fire, water, &c, prayers are addressed in 
other portions of the Yazna and also the Vispered. The Ven- 
didad embodies the moral and ceremonial code, by which a 
man may keep pure. The whole is in the form of conversa- 
tions beween Ormuzd and Zoroaster, and the first part recites 
the sixteen Aryan countries referred to at p. 70 ; the second 
part treats of laws and ceremonies ; the third part of spells 
against evil spirits and diseases. The Yesht contains the germ 
of legends introduced into the great Persian epic, the Shah- 
nameh, and addresses to the archangels, the sun, the heavenly 
fountain, the souls of the departed, &c. 

I hope that enough has been said in the brief chapter on 
Zoroastrianism to show that it is not easy to over-estimate 
the importance of the Avesta as a guide to our knowledge of 
a religion, noblest and purest of the ancient faiths, and the 
influence of which upon surrounding and subsequent beliefs 
was marked. (Spiegel's ' Avesta, die heiligen schriften der 
parsen/ tr. Bleek ; Dr Haug's Essays, a reprint of which is 



APPEXDIX. 273 



much to be desired ; Whitney's 'Oriental, &c, Studies/ art. 
'Avesta;' and Miiller's 'Chips,' vol. i., are among the leading 
authorities. On the use of the word ' Zend,' see Max Miiller's 
1 Lect. on Language,' voL i. p. 237, 6th edit.) 

NOTE I, page 171. 

LEGENDS RELATING TO THE BIRTH OF BUDDHA. 

The belief in transmigration is common to both Brahmanism 
and Buddhism, and abundant illustration of this is afforded 
in the histories of the five hundred and fifty former births of 
Buddha narrated in the Jataka, to which reference was made 
at page 124. In the legend concerning him which Bishop 
Bigandet has translated from the Burmese (itself apparently 
a compilation from a MS. in the Pali, or sacred language of 
the Buddhist literature), it is said, that while dwelling in the 
abode of the Xats, living a life of contemplation, he received 
the news that, having passed through the needful preceding 
stages of existence, he was to become a Buddha, the twenty- 
fifth of that name who have appeared in the world to open 
for men the way to deliverance. According to the Buddhists, 
the places of different orders of beings are arranged as fol- 
lows, extending from the bottom of the earth to a mea- 
sureless height above it. Lowest of all are the four states of 
punishment ; then the abode of man ; above this the six seats 
of Xats, beings who play a great part in the affairs of the 
world, and who are akin to the spirits a belief in whom is 
common to all religions ; above these dwell the Brahmas, who 
are free from all low passions, yet not fully weaned from love 
of the world. Above these are seats occupied by the Arupa, 
who have reached the summit of perfection, and whom one 
step farther will carry into Nirvana. After a while, the 



274 APPENDIX. 



future Buddha, then known as Phralaong, having received 
the congratulations of the Nats, and made choice of birth in 
a princely caste as befitting his high calling, descended to 
earth, and at that moment great wonders appeared ; a radi- 
ant light was spread over ten thousand worlds; the blind 
saw, the dumb spake, the lame walked, the deformed stood 
erect, prisoners were freed ; refreshing breezes blew gently 
over the earth ; cooling springs burst forth, and soft showers 
fell ; flowers of richest colour bloomed ; lilies dropped from 
the sky, scattering sweet scent around ; the songs of the 
Nats were heard by the glad ears of men, and the choicest 
perfumes were diffused through the air. Then came from 
their high abode spirits to watch over the palace where the 
child was to be born, and to ward off harm from him and his 
royal mother, whose soul rested in a perfect calm. Then in 
due time the child was born, and at once stood erect before 
the wondering men and spirits, while, leaping, he said, ' This 
is my last birth ; there shall be to me no other state of ex- 
istence ; I am the greatest of all beings/ At his birth there 
sprang from out the ground the famous tree, under the 
shadow of which he was to become Buddha. ' The Bo-tree 
is the " pippul" (JFicus religiosa) of India. It differs from the 
Banyan (i 7 . Indica) by sending down no roots from its bran- 
ches. Its heart-shaped leaves, with long attenuated points, 
are attached to the stem by so slender a stalk that they appear 
in the profoundest calm to be ever in motion ; and thus, like 
the leaves of the aspen, which, from the tradition that the cross 
was made of that wood, the Syrians believe to tremble in re- 
collection of the events of the crucifixion of Christ, those of 
the Bo-tree are supposed by Buddhists to exhibit a tremulous 
veneration associated with the sacred scenes of which they 
were the witnesses.' (' Tennent's Ceylon/ Yol. I., p. 342.) 
Among the people who came, glad- hearted, at the news of 



APPENDIX. 275 



the wonderful child's birth, special mention is made in the 
legends of a devout old man, reminding us of Simeon, who, 
for his great holiness, had the gift of prophecy. Although 
joy overflowed his soul at the great future which lay before 
the child, his eyes filled with tears because he knew that he 
should not live to see it. Seven days after the birth of Thei- 
dat, for so they named the child, because of the service he 
was to render to mankind, his mother died, and for her vir- 
tues was taken to the dwelling-place of the Nats. 

Bishop Bigandet remarks (' Legend/ &c, p. 16), that ' it must 
be confessed that the conception of Phralaong in his mother's 
womb is wrapped up in a mysterious obscurity which appears to 
exclude the idea of conjugal intercourse. The Cochin-Chinese 
in their religious legends, pretend that Buddha was conceived 
and born from Maia in a wonderful manner, not resembling 
at all what takes place according to the law of nature.' In 
giving 543 B.C. as the date of Buddha's death, I have fol- 
lowed that generally received as based on the Sinhalese 
authorities. Some, however, place that event a century or 
more later, which, in so uncertain a matter as the older 
Hindu chronology, is not a very remarkable difference. 



NOTE K, page 177. 

THE SACRED BOOKS OF BUDDHISM. 

The Tripitaka or sacred canon of the Buddhists is in three 
divisions, the Vinaya-pitaka ; the Sutta-pitaka ; and the 
Abhiclhamma-pitaka ; the second and third pitakas being 
4 sometimes comprehended under the general name of Dharma 
or law.' Pali, the sacred language of the Buddhists, is an 
ancient dialect, related to the Yedic Sanskrit as Italian is 



276 APPENDIX. 

related to Latin, and was once spoken in that part of India 
where Buddhism had its rise. In their belief that it is divine 
and the parent of all other languages, the Buddhists form 
no exception to some other religionists in their notion con- 
cerning the language of their sacred books. (See Max 
Miiller's 4 Lect. on Language,' vol. i. pp. 146, 161, 6th edit.) 
The Tripitaka, which was found to exist in Sanskrit also, has 
been translated into the languages of the different countries 
where Buddhism was propagated ; into Tibetan, Mongolian, 
Chinese, Burmese, &c, but for our most accurate knowledge 
respecting it we are largely indebted to the materials fur- 
nished by the island of Ceylon, among which are two works 
of great value, the Dipavansa, or history of Buddhism in 
Ceylon, and the Mahavansa, a history of that island from the 
earliest times to the fourth century after Christ. 

The canonical books and their commentaries form a mass 
of literature bewildering in its vastness ; the three Pitakas 
alone extending to 592,000 stanzas, and the Atthakatha or 
commentaries, containing 361,550 more. According to a 
statement quoted by Spence Hardy in his c Legends and 
Theories of the Buddhists/ the canon contains 29,368,000 
letters, (five or six times more than the Bible contains,) and 
Max Muller tells us that ' the Tibetan edition of the Buddhist 
canon, consisting of two collections, the Kanjur and the 
Tanjur, numbers about 325 volumes folio, each weighing in 
the Pekin edition from four to five pounds. The Sutta- 
pitaka, which contains the discourses of Buddha, comprises 
five separate works, the last of which is composed of fifteen 
books, the second being the ' Dhammapada,' or ' path of 
virtue' (see p. 181). The most popular portion of this 
pitaka are the sutras or discourses concerning his 550 births, 
which profess to have been narrated by Buddha himself, and 
which are embraced under the title i Pansiya-panas-jataka- 



APPENDIX. 277 



pota.' Messrs Trubner make the welcome announcement of 

an edition of the ' Jiltaka,' comprising Pali text edited by 
Faiisboll and English translation by Child ers. Upon Budd- 
hism generally, see Rev. Spence Hardy's ' Manual ' (out of 
print) ; 4 Eastern Monachism ' and ' Legends and Theories of 
the Buddhists' (Williams & Norgate, 7s. 6cL each); Bigan- 
det's legend of Gaudama,' from the Burmese (Trubner & Co., 
18s.) ; ; Buddhagosha's Parables,' prefaced by Max Midler's 
translation of the ' Dhainmapada' (Trubner & Co., 12s. Gel.) ; 
Sir M. C. Swamy's i Sutta Xipata,' a translation of certain 
discourses from the Sutta-pitaka (Trubner, 6s.) ; Alabaster's 
' Wheel of the Law ' (Triibner, 14s) ; Max Midler's ' Chips/ 
vol. i. ; also his ' Introduction to the Science of Eeligion ' 
(Longmans, 10s. 6d.) ; Bartelemy Saint -Hilaire's ' Le Bouddha 
et sa Eeligion' (Paris, 1860); Eugene Bnrnonfs l Introduc- 
tion a l'Histoire du Buddhism© indien' (Paris, 1844) ; Schla- 
gintweit's ' Buddhism in Tibet ' (Triibner & Co., 42s.) ; Otto 
Kistners ' Buddha and his Doctrines' (Triibner, 2s. 6d) ; 
Beal's i Travels of Eah-Hian and Sung-Yun' (Triibner, 10s. 
6d.) ; lb. 4 Catena of Buddhist Scriptures' (Triibner. 15s.) ; 
Cunningham's 'Bhilsa Topes/ or Buddhist Monuments of 
Central India (Triibner, 21s.) ; the Journals of the Royal 
Asiatic Society, the works of Bunsen, Colebrooke, Ferguson 
Wilson, Sec. 

NOTE L, page 195. 

THE SACRED BOOKS, OR CLASSICS, OF THE CHINESE. 

In giving an account of the books included nnder this 
name, Dr Legge tells us that those now recognized as of 
highest authority in China are comprehended under the 
denominations of ' The Five King ' and ; The Four Shoo.' 



27S APPENDIX. 



c The Five King ' are the five canonical works, containing the 
truths upon the highest subjects from the sages of China, and 
which should be received as law by all generations. The 
term shoo simply means ' writings' or ' books.' (' The Chinese 
Classics/ vol. i., p. 1.) The Five King are the Yih, or ' Book 
of Changes ; ' the Shoo, or ' Book of Historical Documents ; ' 
the She, or c Book of Poetry ; ' the Le-Ke, or ' Record of 
Kites ; ' and the Chhm Ts'ew or ' Spring and Autumn/ annals 
extending from B.C. 721 to 480. 

Confucius made some additions to the Yih, Shoo and She, 
but 6 the Ch'un Ts'ew is the only one of the Five King which 
can, with an approximation to correctness, be described as of 
his own " making." ' 

The four books are the Lun Yu, occupied chiefly with the 
sayings of Confucius ; the Ta Heo, or ' Great Learning/ by 
Tsang-Sin, a disciple of Confucius ; the Chung Yung or 
4 Doctrine of the Mean ' (these three works will be found 
fully analysed in the first vol. of Legge's ' Chinese Classics ') 
and the Works of Mencius, the ' Master's ' most illustrious 
disciple. ' After the death of Confucius, there was an end of 
his exquisite words; and when his seventy disciples had 
passed away, violence began to be done to their meaning.' 
So runs the ancient chronicle, from which we further learn 
that to keep the people in ignorance the courtiers per- 
suaded the Emperors of the Ts'in dynasty (b.c. 220-205) to 
burn the sacred books and the writings of the philosophers, 
and to slaughter a large number of scholars for keeping copies 
of the forbidden books. But when the Emperors of the Han 
dynasty came to the throne they set themselves to repair the 
loss, and by great effort succeeded in recovering the ancient 
literature, since which 'the successive dynasties have con- 
sidered the literary monuments of the country to be an object 
of their special care/ and Dr Legge is satisfied that the' 



APPENDIX, 279 



evidence is complete that the classical books of China have 
couie down from at least a century before the Christian era, 
substantially the same as we have them at present. 

See Legge's 'Life and Teachings of Confucius/ 10s. Gd. ; 
lb. 'Works of Mencius,' 12s. ; lb. 'Chinese Classics/ £1G, 16s, 
(Triibner) ; Freeman Clarke's ' Ten Great Religions ' 
(Triibner, 14s.) ; and the works of Archdeacon Hard wick, 
Doolittle, Meadows, &c. 

The mere recital of the names of the sacred books which 
has filled the larger portion of these Notes indicates how 
impossible it is within the limits of a single life to acquire full 
knowledge of the book -religions of the world alone. And 
when we remember how hard it is to understand the nature of 
the doctrinal differences which divide Christendom into many 
sects, and to master the meaning of the technical terms of the 
separate organizations, we must not wonder if we fail to dis- 
cern clearly the salient features of religions in the study of 
which these difficulties are multiplied a thousand-fold. But 
one thing we surely cannot fail to learn : the lesson of a 
larger charity towards all. 



INDEX. 



A. 

l Abou Ben Adhem,' legend of, 253. 
Abraham and Ishmael, Muslim legend 
of. 211. 
,, and Zoroaster. 159. 
Adam, Muslim legend about, 21L 

,; and Eve, 47. 
Africa, spread of Islam in, 224. 
Age, probable, of deposits in ' Kent's 
Hole,' 59. 
„ „ of Vedic hvmns, 266. 

Agni, god of fire, 139, 148* 150, 265. 

„ birth of, and Vedic hymn to, 140. 
Ahana and Ath§ne, 10L 
Ahriman, Persian god of darkness, 2-3, 

46, 70. 161. 164, 168. 
Ahura Mazda, see Ormuzd. 
Airvanem-Vaego. the Persian Eden. 70. 
Al-Ilah. Allah. 202. 
All-Father (Alfadir), 7, 27, 215. 
Altar, 91, 92. 

„ of Agni, 148. 

„ offerings by Aryans upon, 94. 
Ancestors, offerings to spirits of, 148. 

„ worship of, 190. 

Angels, Buddhist belief in, 273. 

„ Mohammadan „ 214. 

„ Zoroastrian „ 160. 
'Angra-Mainyus' (Ahriman), 161. 
Animals, criminality of, 50, 259. 
Antiquity of man in Europe, 56, 59, 61. 
Apollo and Python, myth of, 106. 
Arabs, character of the. 210. 

„ figurative language of, 236. 

„ past influence of, in Europe, 225. 
Aranyakas, 264, 267. 
k Arya,' meaning of. 68. 
Aryan civilization, 75. 

„ languages, table of, 83. 

„ myths and fairy tales, 96-128. 

„ religion, 86-96. 

„ tribes, 67. 

13 



Aryan tribes, separation of, 128. 
Aryans, division among the Eastern, 
133. 
„ source of knowledge about. 79. 
Asgard. abode of the Xorse gods, 27. 
Asoka. king, 182. 
Ass in the lion's skin. 125. 
Assyrian legend of the Creation, etc., 

255. 
Atharva-Veda, 264, 266. 
Athene, myth of, 10L 
Atlantis, lost island of, 37. 
Atthakatha, 276. 
Attraction, law of, 31. 33. 
Avatars of Vishnu. 153, 267. 
Avesta-Zend, see Zend-Avesta. 



Baal, a Semitic god, 202. 
Bab-il, 201. 

Babylon, captivity of Jews in. 166, 167. 
Babylonian legend of the Creation, 
22, 255. 
„ „ Flood. 72. 

Tower of Babel, 73. 
Bactria, 75, 85, 158, 163. 
Baker, Sir Samuel, quoted, 236. 
Beast-fables, 125. 
'Beautv and the Beast,' variants of, 

5, 120-124. 
Bel. a Semitic god, 202. 
Belus, „ 2a 

Berosus, 22. 
i Beth-el, 201. 
Bhagavad-Gita, 269. 
Bible, mode of study of the, 230. 
„ origin and growth of, 232, 238. 
„ inspiration of, 235. 
Birth of Buddha, legends relating to 
the, 273. 
i Birthplace of mankind, supposed, 38, 
i 53, 260. 



282 



INDEX. 



Black Stone, the, 208, 211, 214. 
Books, sacred, see Sacred Books. 
Bo-Tree, 274. 
Brahma, 24, 150, 270. 

„ creation of heaven and earth 
by, 25. 
Brahma, 151, etc., 269, 270. 
Brahma-Veda, 264, 266. 
Brahman, Buddha and the, 170. 
Brahmanas, 139, 264 y 266. 
Brahmans, rise of the, 151. 

„ tyranny of the, 151. 

Brahraanism, see Hinduism. 
Bridge of souls, 164, 223. 
Britain, Great, more than once beneath 

the sea, 37, 55. 
4 Brother,' meaning of, 77. 
Brutes, difference between man and, 
49, 54, 
„ punished as criminals, 50, 259. 
Buddha, life of, sketch of the, 171-176, 
„ as ninth descent of Vishnu, 

154. 
„ leading doctrines taught by, 

183. 
„ legends as to the birth of, 

273. 
„ stories concerning, 178. 
„ teaching of, 180-182. 
Buddha's death, date of, 275. 

„ four paths to Nirvana, 184. 
„ ten commandments, 185. 
Buddhism, countries professing, 182. 
„ and Roman Catholicism, 

likeness between, 187. 
„ a state religion of China, 
191. 
rise and decay of, in India, 
182. 
„ source of success of, 185. 
Buddhist councils, 176. 

„ fables, see Jataka. 
„ forms of worship, 187. 
„ legends of the past, 44. 
„ scriptures, 177. 
Bull and cows, mythical, 108. 

„ worship of, 155. 

Burning of body, 148. 

„ of remains of Buddha, 176. 



Caste, 151, 185. 

Caverns, discoveiy of stone imple- 
ments in, 56. 
Celtic languages, 84. 



Celtic races, 67, 85. 

„ migration to Europe, 130. 
Ceylon, Buddhist relics and literature 

in, 183, 275. 
Chaldean and Jewish legends, relation 
between, 255. 
„ legend of the Flood, 72. 

Tower of Babel, 73. 
Chalk, nature and rate of deposit of, 

39. 
Changes on the earth's surface, 4, 37, 

55. 
Charity, Mohammad's sermon on, 216. 
Child-life as illustrative of myth- 
making, 103. 
China, religions of, 189, etc. 

,, sacred books of, 195, 277. 
Chinese language, 82. 

„ manners and customs, 189. 

„ reverence for learning, 190. 

„ worship of ancestors, 190. 

Christ, Muslim reverence for, 213. 

Christian religion, relation of, to other 

religions, 246. 
Christians in Arabia, 212. 
Cinderella, origin and variants of 

tale of, 5, 117-120. 
Civilization of the Aryans, 75. 

„ of pre-Aiyan races, 65, 

134. 
Climate of Europe, changes in, 54, 55. 
Comets, origin of, 31. 
Commandments, ten, of Buddha, 185. 
Confucius, sketch of the life of, 192- 
194. 
„ teaching of, 196, 197. 

Cooling of sun, planets, and moons, 34. 
Councils, Buddhist, 176. 
Creation, legends of, in Genesis, 13-15. 
„ Babylonian legend of, 22, 

255. 
„ Egyptian, 23. 
„ Greek, 27. 
„ Hindu, 24. 
„ Persian, 23. 
„ Scandinavian, 25. 
„ of man, 23, 26, 28, 48, 50, 52. 
„ told by Science, 29, etc. 
Criminality of animals, etc., 50, 259 
Crust of the earth, 33, 36, 39, 40. 
Cyrus, 166, 259. 



' Daughter,' meaning of, 77. 
Dawn as a source of myth 104. 



INDEX, 



283 



'Day,' meaning of, in Genesis, 20. 
Dead body dreaded by the Parsis, 167. 
Death, Buddha on the law of, 179. 

„ Confucius on, 195. 

„ of Mohammad, 221. 

„ Norsemen's idea of, 27. 

„ date of Buddha's, 275. 
'Deity,' origin of word, 88. 
Deluge, see Flood. 
Deodand, 260. 

Deus, same as Dyaus, Zeus, etc., 88. 
Deva (bright), 88. 
Devas (bad spirits), 70, 160. 
Development of man's higher nature, 

249. 
Devil, the, 48, 106, 168, 256. 

„ temptation of Buddha by, 174. 
Dhammapada, 181, 276. 
4 Div,' a form of dyu, 88. 
Dyaus, chief Aryan god, 88. 

„ displaced by Indra, 141. 

„ same as Zeus, etc., 88. 

„ -pftar, same as Jupiter, 89. 



E. 

• Earth,' meaning of, 68. 

„ changes in surface of the, 4, 

37, 55. 
„ crust of the, 33, 36, 39. 
„ future of the, 35. 
„ invoked as ' mother,' 87, 139, 

149. 
„ once a sun, 34. 
„ store of heat in the, 34. 
Eastern Aryans, 132, 148. 
'Eddas,' meaning of, 26, 27. 
Eden, Garden of, 15, 42, 257. 
„ „ Persian, 70. 

Egg, notion that heaven and earth are 

made from an, 25. 
Egypt, religion of ancient, 241. 
Egyptian legend of the Creation, 23. 
Eight steps to Nirvana, Buddha's, 185. 
El, a Semitic god, 201. 
Elves, 97. 

Epic poems of Aryan nations as out- 
growth of myth, 98. 
' Erin,' probably allied to ' Aryan,' 69. 
Erinyes, the Greek Furies, 112. 
Eskimos, 61. 

Europe, changes in climate and sur- 
face of, 54, 55, 56. 
„ antiquity of man in, 56, 59, 61. 
„ early races in, 61-63. 



Europe, migration of Aryans to, 130. 
Evil, source of, 169. 



F. 

Fairy Tales, common origin of many, 
98, etc. 
„ Beauty and the Beast, 120- 

124. 
„ Cinderella, 117-120. 

„ Giant who had no heart in 

his body, 121. 
„ House that Jack Built, 126 

„ Jinn's soul, 123. 

„ Punchkin, 122. 

Family life, Aryan, 77. 
' Father,' meaning of, 77. 
Finns, language of the, 83. 

„ notion of, about heaven and 
earth, 25. 
Fire, worship of, 139, 164. 
„ -god, Agni, 140. 
„ „ hymn to, 141. 

Flood, legends of a, 71, 72, 74, 257, 268. 
Fo, the Chinese name of Buddha, 191. 
Forces of nature, 31. 
Four paths to Nirvana, Buddha's, 184. 
Freyja, the 'lady,' 215. 
Frog, the sun as a, 112. 
Frost-giants, 26. 
Funeral hymn, Hindu, 149. 
Future life, belief in a, 147, 164, 166, 
186, 211, 223, 242, 243. 

G. 

Ganges, River, 155. 
Garden of Eden, 15, 42, 70, 257. 
Gathas, 161, 271, 272. 
Gautama Buddha, 171. 
Gellert, myth of the hound, 98, 115 
Genesis, legends of creation in, 13-15. 
„ creation of man in, 48-50. 
„ meaning of 'day' in, 20. 
Giant who had no heart in his body, 121 
Glacial Epoch, see Ice Age. 
Gloaming, Nurse, 105. 
' Goddess of Speech,' 95. 
Gods, Aryan, 89. 

„ Semitic. 201, 202. 

„ Vedic, 139. 
Grand Lama, the, 188. 
Greece, religion of ancient, 242. 
Greek language, 84. 

„ legend of the creation, 27. 



284 



INDEX. 



Greek legend of the first man, 45. 
„ myths, meaning of the, 100-102, 
110-112. 
1 Grimm's law,' 81. 
Gypsies, language of the, 83. 



Heat, nature of, 32. 

„ store of, inside the earth, 34. 
Heaven and Earth, creation of, by 
„ „ Brahma, 25. 

„ „ as father and 

mother, 89. 
Hebrew language, source of, 202. 
Hel, Hela, goddess, 215, 244. 
Hercules and Cacus, myth of, 106. 
Hesiod, 27. 

Hindu legend of the Creation, 24. 
„ „ Deluge, 266, 268. 

„ funeral hymn, 149. 
„ Trinity, 139, 152. 
Hinduism, ancient and modern, 136, 
etc. 
„ present condition of, 155. 
Hindus, ancient prayer of the, 143. 
„ „ belief of, in a future 

life, 147. 
Hira, Mount, 209, 226. 
Homa-offering, 164. 
Horse, sacrifice of the, 95. 
House that Jack built, 126. 
Hungarian language, 83. 
Huxley, Professor, quoted, 37. 



Ice Age, 55, 61. 

II, Ilu, a Semitic god, 72, 201. 

Ilah, 202. 

Inanimate things, criminality of, 259. 

Incarnation of Buddha, 274, 275. 

„ Vishnu, 153, 154, 267. 

India, races in, 134. 
Indo-European, see Aryan. 
Indra, myth of, 106, 109. 

„ Vedic god of the sky, 139, 141, 

150, 160, 265. 
„ birth of, 141. 
„ hymn to, 142. 
Inscriptions in 'Kent's Hole,' 58. 
Inspiration of the Bible, etc., 231. 
„ defined, 240. 
theories of, 235. 



Institutes of Manu, 24, 78, 264, 266 
Ishmael, Arab legend of, 215. 
'Isldm,' meaning of, 204. 
Isla'm, doctrines of, 213, 217, 223. 

„ spread of, 221, 223, 224. 

„ wars of, 222, 225. 



Jah, Jahveh (Jehovah), 202. 
Jainas, Hindu sect of, 156. 
Ja'taka (Buddhist fables), 124, 273, 276. 
Jewish history, importance of, 203. 
„ legends of the creation, 13-15. 
„ „ of man, 48-50. 

„ „ Adam and Eve, 47. 

„ „ relation of, to other 

legends, 18, 168, 
255, 
„ Sabbath, origin of, 20. 
„ religion, influence of, on Islam, 
214. 
Jews, captivity of, in Babylon, 166. 
„ Mohammad's overtures to the, 

221. 
„ settlement of, in Arabia, 211. 
Jovis, same as Dyaus, etc., 88. 
Judgment, day of, 164, 223, 242. 
Juggernaut, 155. 
Jupiter, 89. 



Kaabah, sacred stone of the, 208, 211, 

214. 
Kali, Hindu goddess, 154. 
Kansa, Hindu demon-king, 154. 
Kapilavastu, 171. 
'Kent's Hole,' deposits in, 57. 

„ „ probable age 

of, 59, 60. 
„ inscriptions in, 58. 

Kiblah, 220. 
'Kings,' sacred books of the Chinese, 

195, 278. 
Kingsley, Charles, quoted, 129. 
Kor&n, contents of the, 225. 226. 

„ quotations from the, 216, 218, 
227-229. 
Koreish, Arab tribe of the, 208. 
Krishna, Vishnu's avatar as, 153. 

„ worship of, 155, 
Kronos, myth of, 100, 110. 
K'ung-Foo-Tse, see Confucius, 192. 



INDEX. 



285 



L. 

Language, value of, as a clue to race, 
79-82, 132. 
„ stages in growth of, S2. 

Languages, Aryan, 83. 

„ „ words common to, 85. 

Semitic, 200. 
Lao-tse, 191. 
Laplace, 258. 
Latin language, 84. 
Law of attraction, 31, 33. 

„ Grimm's, 81. 
Laws of Manu, 24, 78, 264, 266. 
Legend of Creation, Babylonian, 22, 255. 
„ Egyptian, 23. 
„ „ Greek, 27. 

„ „ Hindu, 24. 

„ „ Jewish, 13-15. 

,. „ Persian, 23. 

„ „ Scandinavian, 25. ; 

Legends of birth of Buddha, 273. 

„ creation of man, 48-50, etc. j 
„ Flood, 71, 72, 268. 

„ Man's happy state, 44-47, 71. 
,, Mohammad, 205. 
„ Tower of Babel, 73. ' 

„ relation between Jewish and 
Chaldean, 255. 
Light and darkness, myths of, 109. 
Limestone caverns, 56. 



M. 

Magic hatchets, scissors, etc., 124. 
Mahabharata, 264, 268. 
' Man,' meaning of, 49. 
Man, antiquity of, in Europe, 56, 59-61. 
„ difference between, and brute, 

49, 54. 

,, legends of creation of, 23, 26, 48- 

50, 52. 

„ supposed birthplace of, 38, 53, 260. 
Man's happy state, legends of, 44-47, 71. 

,, development, 249. 
Mantras or hymns, 264. 
Manu, Laws or Institutes of, 24, 78, 264, 

266. 
Mars, surface of the planet, 41. 
Marnts, Vedic storm-gods, 139, 141. 
Mazda, see Ahura-Mazda 
Mecca, 208, 219, 225. 

„ origin of, 215. 
Medina, grave reserved for Christ at, 

213. 



Melech, a Semitic god, 202. 
Men, early races of, in Europe, 61. 
Mencius, 278. 
Messiah, the Persian, 164. 
Meteors, origin of, 31. 
Milky Way, the, 11. 
Mitra, Vedic sun-god, 117, 139. 
Mohammad, sketch of the life of, 208, 
etc. 
„ teaching of, 213-217. 

Mohammadanism, see Islam, 
Moloch, a Semitic god, 202. 
Mongol race, 65, 134, 182. 
Mongolian legend of the first men, 45. 
Monks, Buddhist, 187, 188. 
Moon believed to be alive, 87. 

„ Greek notion of size of, 11. 
Moon-plant, see Soma. 
Moons, cooling of, 34. 

„ once white-hot, 30. 

„ origin of, 30. 
'Mother,' meaning of, 77. 

„ earth addressed as, 87. 
Muir, Dr, quoted, 265. 
Muller, Max, quoted, 89,105,145,167, 271. 
' Muslim,' meaning of, 204. 
Myth, origin of, 102-106. 

„ of battle between light and 
darkness, 106. 

„ of the dawn, 102, 104, 
Myths, Aryan, 96-J26. 

„ Semitic, I26, 256. 

„ common origin of certain, 98, 
106, etc. 

„ concerning a happy past, 44-47. 



N. 

Nats, Buddhist abode of, 273. 
Nature, personification of, 87, S9. 
Nature of man religious, 250. 
Nature-myths, 102-104, 113. 

„ worship, Aryan, 86-S9. 
Nebulas, 41. 
Nebular theory of origin of solar 

systems, 29-31, 258. 
Nirvana, 1S4, 273. 
Norseman's idea of death, 27. 
Numbers, sacred, 20, 21. 
Nurse Gloaming, 105. 



O. 

Oceans; how formed, 35. 



286 



INDEX. 



Odin as Alfadir (All Father), 26, 215. 
„ Valfadir (Choosing Father), 
27, 244. 
(Edipus, myth of, 100. 
Old Woman and pig, tale of, 126. 
Om, symbol of Hindu Trinity, 152. 
Ordeal, trial by, 77 
Origin of myth, 102-106, 113. 
„ sacrifice, 91. 
„ the solar system, 29-31, 258. 
Ormuzd, Persian god of light, 23, 46, 

70, 159, 160, etc., 272. 
Ouranos, 110. 
Oxygen in the earth's crust, 40. 



Pali language, the, 275. 
Parsis, 23, 158, 271. 
„ belief of, in a future life, 164, 

166. 
„ fire-worshippers, so-called, 165. 
„ legend of a happy past, 44. 
Persia, ancient importance of, 166. 
Persian legend of the Creation, 23. 

„ „ first man and 

woman, 46. 
Personification of nature, 89. 
Pitaka, see Tripitaka. 
Planets, origin of the, 30. 
„ cooling of, 34. 
„ once suns, 34. 
Polynesian idea of foreigners, 14. 
Prayer, 91. 

„ to Varuna, a Vedic god, 146, 

147. 
„ Kortn on, 216, 228. 
Priestcraft, origin of, 92. 
Prithivi, Vedic earth-god, 139, 141. 
Proctor, R. A., on origin of solar 

system, 258. 
Prometheus, myth of, 45. 
Psyche" and Cupid, myth of, 120. 
Punchkin, Hindu fairy tale of, 122. 
Puranas, 265, 269. 



Races, earliest, of men in Europe, 61, 

63. 
Kama, 267. 
Ramayana, 264, 267. 
Religion of ancient Egyptians, 241. 
„ „ Greeks, 242. 



Religion of ancient Romans, 243. 

„ „ Teutons, 244. 

„ Buddhist, 170, etc. 

„ Hindu, 136, etc. 

„ Mohammadan, 204, etc. 

„ Parsi, 158, etc. 

„ Christian, relation of, to other 
religions, 246-248. 
Religions of China, 189, etc. 
Resurrection, 164, 223. 
Revelation, book-, 139, 230. 
Reynard the Fox, 125. 
Rhodope, myth of, 118. 
Rig-Veda, 88, 138, 264. 
„ contents of, 265. 

„ gods addressed in, 139. 

Rishis, Vedic poets, 138. 
Rivers; how formed, 35. 
Roman Catholicism and Buddhism, 

likeness between, 187. 
Rome, religion of ancient, 243. 
Roots of language, 82. 



Sabbath, origin of the, 20. 

„ Mohammadan, 220. 
Sacred books of the Brahmans, 138, 264. 
„ Buddhists.. 177, 275. 

„ Chinese, 195, 277. 

„ Mohammadans,225. 

„ Parsis, 159, 271. 

„ Scandinavians, 26. 

„ belief in the inspiration 
of, 231. 
Sacred numbers, 20. 
„ stone of the Kaabah, 208, 211, 
214. 
Sacred tree of the Buddhists, 174, 183, 

274. 
Sacrifice, origin of the rite of, 91. 
„ among the Aryans, 94. 
St George and the Dragon, myth of, 

106. 
Sakya-Muni (Buddha), 171. 
Sama-Veda, 264, 265. 
Sanhita or collection, 264. 
Sanskrit language, 83. 

„ Vedic, value of, 101. 
„ word for /sin,' 145. 
Saranyu, the dawn, 112. 
Satan, see Devil. 
Saturn, moons and rings of, 30. 
Savages, nature-myths among, 102. 
Scandinavian legend of the Creation, 
25. 



INDEX. 



287 



Scandinavian religion, 26, 244. 

„ sacrifice of the horse, 95. 

Seas ; how formed, 35. 
4 Semitic,' meaning of, 200. 
Semitic languages, S3. 
,, nations, 200. 
„ mythology, 256. 
„ race, gods of the, 201. 
Serpent-worship, 47, 150. 
Seven, choice of, as a sacred number, 
20. 
„ legends connected with. 21. 
Shoo, Chinese Classics, 196, 27S. 
Siddartha (Buddha). 171. 
Sigurd and Fafnir, myth of, 106. 
Sikhs, 156. 

4 Sin ' in Sanskrit, 145. 
4 Sister,' meaning of, 77. 
Siva, one of the Hindu Trinity, 152. 

„ described, 153. 

„ worship of, 269. 
Slavonic race, 67. 

„ language, S4. 
4 Smriti,' meaning of, 139. 
Solar systems, origin of, 29-31, 258. 
Soma, offering of the, 94, 96, 143, 149, 
164, 265. 

„ as a god, 94, 139, 142. 
Sosiosh, the Persian Messiah, 164. 
4 Soul,' meaning of, 49. 
Spectroscope, the, 41. 
Spirits, worship of departed, 47, 190. 
4 Sruti,' meaning of, 139. 
Stalagmite floors of caverns, formation 

of, 57. 
Stars, matter in the, and suns the 

same, 41. 
Stone, sacred, of the Kaabah, 208. 211, 
214. 

„ circles, 134. 

„ tools and weapons, 53, 56, 58, 
249. 
Sudras, 151. 
Sun, origin of the, 30. 

,, cause of globe-shape of, 31. 

„ myths of the, 103, 108, 112. 

„ regarded as alive, 87. 

„ -gods in the Veda, 139. 
Surahs of the Koran, 226. etc. 
Sfirya, Vedic sun-god, 139. 
Sutras, 264, 266, 276. 
Suttee, 150. 

T. 

Tantalus, myth of, 100, 111. 



Tantras, 264, 269. 

Taoism, 191. 

Tartarus, 28, 111. 

Tatar tribes. 65. 

Tell, William, legend of, 98, 114. 

Temples, origin of, 92. 

„ absence of, among the Arvans, 
150. 

„ „ Zoroastrians, 165. 

Temptation of Buddha, 174. 
Ten Commandments of Buddha, 185. 
Tertiary rocks, 54. 
Teutonic languages, 84. 
„ religion, 244. 
Tibetan legend of the first men, 45. 

„ monasteries, 18S. 
Tiu, same as Dyaus, Deus, etc., 88. 
Tower of Babel, legend of, 73, 257, 
1 Tower of Silence,' Parsi, 166. 
Tradition, 139. 
Transmigration, 150, 273. 
Tree, sacred, of the Buddhists, 174, 

183, 274. 
Trial by ordeal, 77. 
„ of animals and lifeless objects as 
criminals, 259, 260. 
'TrimurtV meaning of, 152. 
Trinity, Hindu, 139, 152. 
Tripitaka, 177. 275. 
Tuesday, origin of, 8S. 
Tylor, Dr E. B., quoted, 259, 261. 



Upanishads, 264, 267. 
Uranus, 23. 

Ushas, goddess of the dawn, 139. 
„ hymn to, 143. 



Vach, Yedic goddess of speech, 95. 
Valfadir (Choosing Father). 27, 244. 
Valhalla (Hall of the Chosen), 27, 245. 
Varuna, Vedic god, 111, 139, 144. 
„ hymns and prayers to, 146 
147. 
Vasishtha, a Vedic poet, 144. 
4 Veda,' meaning of, 138. 
Vedangas, 266. 

Vedas, 13, 83, 88, 95, 101, 109, 111, 117 
142, 147, 151, 153, 170, 240 
264. 
„ gods invoked in, 139. 



288 



INDEX. 



Vedas, natnre and value of, 137, 264. 

„ words of, counted, 139. 
Vedic religion, the, 148, 150. 
Vermin, Parsl hatred of, 162. 
Vishnu, incarnations of, 153, 267. 

„ Vedic sun-god, 139. 

„ one of the Hindu Trinity, 152. 
Vritra, the dragon, 106, 109, 142, 161. 

W. 

Wars of Mohammad, 222. 

Weeks, origin of, 21. 

1 Wheel of the law,' 175. 

Wife, Mohammad's first, 209, 219. 

Witches and witchcraft, origin of belief 

in, 169. 
Wolf and seven kids, tale of, 111. 
Words common to the Aryan races, 

list of, 85. 
Worship, Buddhist forms of, 187. 
„ Parsi, „ 165 

of ancestors, 190. 



Worship of the serpent, 47, 150. 



Y. 

Yagur-Veda, 264, 265. 

Yama and Yami, the first pair, 147, 

148, 156. 
Yima, King, 44, 148. 
Ymir, the Frost-giant, 26. 



Z. 

Zarathustra, see Zoroaster. 
Zemzem, the well, 215. 
Zend (so-called) language, 83, 271. 
Zend-Avesta, 23, 70, 83, 133, 159, 163. 
„ contents of the, 271, 272. 

Zeupater, same as Jupiter, etc., 89. 
Zeus, 45, 101, 111. 

„ same as Dyaus, etc., 88. 
Zoroaster, 133, 141, 158, 271. 
Zoroastrianism, 133, 158-169. 



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